Focus, Pocus

Have you ever had to get on with a task or a job and found you could not concentrate, while an Italian student came up with a wonderful process to help him concentrate on getting a task done. Here is how he did it, and how you may be able to use his idea.

Get a basic timer and then pick a task you want to concentrate on. Remove obvious distractions (like turning off your phone).

The first few times you try this I recommend that you set the timer for 5 minutes, then give the task at hand everything you have. If your mind starts to wander, snap yourself back and remind yourself you need to maintain this level of concentration for just a few more minutes.

Five minutes may not seem like a great deal of time, but it is when you are trying to focus. After you have trained yourself to focus for five minutes and are comfortable doing this, increase your timer to 10 minutes and work on the task for that amount of time, without losing your concentration. (If 10 minutes is too long, move your timer to 7 minutes.) The idea is to have success at being focused for a short period of time.

When you have mastered the 10-minute concentration time then give yourself a break. Over a period of a week, the idea is to move from a focus time of 5 minutes to a focus time of 30 minutes.

I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much you get done and how easily you train yourself to become highly and productively focused. As you do this, you are actually training your brain to block out distractions and increase your ability to concentrate for extended periods of time without a timer.