Focus is a Muscle - How Do You Strengthen Yours?

Focus is a little bit like a muscle - and as with any muscle, the more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes. Focus is the ability to start a task and maintain your attention until it's complete, without being distracted or letting your mind wander. In order to improve your ability to concentrate, you have to practise and keep pushing yourself.

Attention spans are definitely getting shorter. How much are you really concentrating right now? In the last couple of minutes, how many times have you checked your phone, opened an app, heard the ping of an incoming email? The modern world is filled with distractions and blocking out all that background chatter is a hard task.

Now to take your brain to the gym and start flexing it. Begin by eliminating any possible distractions around you, so mute the phone, switch off the radio and pop on a set of noise-cancelling headphones to block out any background sounds from other people. Next choose one task which you're going to focus on. Start off with shorter tasks and then you can build yourself up slowly.

Focusing on one thing at a time trains your brain to stay on track, to avoid meandering onto other tasks. Try to really absorb yourself in whatever you're doing and force yourself to keep going until it's complete. Next time around, go for something which will take a little longer. The more often you repeat this and the longer the period you spend in concentration, the easier it will become as your focus levels are strengthened with regular exercise.