How to Increase Concentration?

One of the most essential factors in reaching your career aspirations is Concentration. One needs to be highly focused in order to achieve any dream or goal. Great concentration can help you crack even the hardest nut. But in this technologically advanced era, we are all caught by tech-gadgets which stand out to be the biggest distractions, overcoming which most of us struggle. Have you ever wondered what makes you pick up your phone after every 10-15 minutes while studying? It is the lack of concentration which refrains you from focusing on a task continuously for a longer period of time. To utilize quality education to the fullest and to extract the best advantages from it, it is essential to completely concentrate while acquiring it. Be it school, college or preparation for competitive exams, we often fight battles to focus. If you are struggling too and exploring how to increase concentration, here is a blog to help you with some helpful ideas.

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What is concentration?

Remez Sasson noted in Will Power & Self Discipline that concentration is the ability to concentrate one’s attention according to one’s will. The term “concentration” refers to the ability to focus one’s attention. It is the capacity to concentrate one’s mind on a single subject, object, or concept while blocking out all other thoughts, ideas, feelings, and sensations. For most of us, the last portion is the most difficult. To concentrate, you must block out or ignore all other irrelevant thoughts, ideas, feelings, or sensations.

Factors Affecting Concentration

Our focus appears to be under attack from all sides on certain days. In reality, both internal and external or environmental variables influence concentration. It helps to understand what’s getting in the way today if you want to learn how to enhance attention and memory.

• Distraction
• Insufficient sleep.
• Insufficient physical activity.
• Eating habits. 
• Environment

10 Ways to Increase Focus & Concentration

If you are facing trouble concentrating, there are several methods that can help you prepare and improve your concentration.

• Train your brain by playing games like sudoku, crossword puzzles, etc
• You can play video games to improve your concentration
• A good night’s sleep is important
• Take time out for exercise
• Spend more time with nature
• Meditate to keep yourself calm
• Take a break when needed
• Listen to music occasionally
• Vary your diet by reducing sugary and greesy food
• You can drink caffeine for concentration

Consistent Sleep Schedule

If you are keeping your schedule totally packed and barely have time to sleep, then you need to alter your schedule. A good sleep of 8 to  9 hours rejuvenates your mind the best way. Sleeping daily for some good amount of time should be on the top of your priority list. As with a stressed or tired mind, you will definitely not be able to focus for a long stretch. Improper sleep may hamper your mood, motivation, and judgment making you irritable about things. Thus, altering your schedules and regularly getting a good amount of sleep can raise your concentration levels. 

Quit Caffeine 

Surviving through board exams of the class twelfth has made us slaves of caffeine. Coffee has become a sure shot go-to option whenever we want to escape sleep. If you align with the aforementioned fact, you need to quit this habit immediately. Caffeine is not a long-term solution to the problem of keeping yourself awake for long hours. The appropriate remedy is water. It circulates the essential nutrients to the brain which will help you increase your potential to focus on studies. Instead of gulping it all together, take it, sip by sip at infrequent intervals.  

Walk it Out

The most effective way how to increase concentration is physical exercise. Rather than switching to your gadgets while you take a break instead, go out in the fresh air and exercise. Do some stretching, it will help you get rid of the stress. If you are short on time and want to rejuvenate yourself, go out for running or brisk walking. A walk or exercise ensures proper regulation of blood in every part of the body. Investing your 15-20 minutes of time in physical activity will enhance your abilities to retain whatever you have studied. After completing a monotonous topic just put on your running shoes and walk it out, then take a quick test to check how much you remember what you studied earlier. 

Put on Your Favourite Track

Soothing music can do wonders. We are sure you are not reading it for the first time, music can be your pathway to enter your comfort zone. Some students even use music as the right tool to get into the right mood for their favorite subjects. Listening to music can relax the side of the brain used for studying while it activates the other side which ultimately reduces all the stress. You can even practice subjects like Mathematics, Accounts or Economics while listening to your favorite jams. With a fresh mind, you will now be able to concentrate better. Are you all geared up to prep your personalized playlist?

Talk Your Heart Out

Long battles with books can be exhausting making it impossible to concentrate after a point of time. To recover your saturation point, you can try random things! Yes, we said it the right way, talk it out! Just talk, be it your siblings, family members, friends or even your pet dog. Talking is an all-time favorite stress reliever. It helps you get away with all the boredom you got into. Thus, talking your heart out to your go-to person can help release the stress and establish a better focus ahead. Try this out and tell your friends the easiest option of how to increase concentration.

Find Your Spot

Just as the right set of books is required for that extra-edge knowledge, the perfect spot to concentrate is equally important. Switch on some soothing lights, get your comfortable chair and that’s it such points can help you increase your concentration. For some proper table and chair makes them concentrate better whereas others find it easier to focus while sitting on a tranquil terrace. Your study spot need not be in a library but it should make you completely concentrate and retain whatever you are reading. So go out and explore your perfect spot.

Buddy For Study 

Finding the right partner with whom you can sail the boat of rock-solid preparation makes it worth the long strenuous hours of study. Thus, it is vital to find a partner who can help you stay mentally present and focused on the task you are doing. At times studying and being awake late at night can get mundane. The best solution for how to increase concentration is finding a partner you can take breaks together, perform the above-mentioned tasks and even gauge how much both of you have grasped from studies. 

Let us have a look at some interesting games which will resolve all your queries about how to increase concentration: 

• Jigsaw Puzzles: Through the game, your mind will be engaged which will improve concentration by sorting out various colour puzzles. Hence, you should strive to solve a few jig-saw puzzles everyday
• Crossword Game: It is one of the best cognitive exercises through which you can train your mind to find out answers of the puzzles given
• Sudoku: By solving this exercise, the mind will be trained to apprehend many quick tricks within a short period of time. This stimulates the brain to think fast which will make your concentration better in various activities.
• Chess: Chess will enable you to think critically and logically. Playing chess requires the involvement of both the sides of the brain
• Brain Yoga: Playing the game involves a lot of mental exercises and extending your pinky finger while keeping the fist intact may sound easy but is a tough one to crack because of all the necessary conditions of the game   

Exercise, Exercise and Exercise!!

One should never ignore the importance of doing physical activities and exercising on a daily, which will not only help individuals to increase and improve their concentration but will also allow them to remain fit and healthy. Exercising is a great way to release stress and negativity from our system. The sweat that releases from our body will make our body and brain calmer, cooler and relaxed. This will eventually improve your concentration game. So doing any sort of exercise that you like and enjoy doing for at least half an hour will give you lifelong benefits. 

Spend Time with Nature

As soon as we are moving ahead of time, we are forgetting some of the effective old-school practices that usually used to have a great impact on our parents’ and grandparents’ lives. Earlier everything or every activity (most of them) was being performed in the presence of nature. As we have become modern and more dependent on technology, we have somehow eliminated nature from our daily lives. Having said that, nature has that supreme power and positivity that transfers onto us when we are in the presence of nature. A good 30 minutes walk in nature or doing yoga in the presence of nature or just sitting idle in nature will help people to boost their concentration and vanish all the day-to-day stress and anxiety from their minds. So if next time someone asks you how to increase concentration? Then your answer must be to spend time with nature!

Try Meditation 

Of course, you must have heard about meditation. But have you ever tried doing it? Or involving mediation into your routine? No? Then now is a time to try and give hands-on meditation. It has been scientifically proven also that good and regular practice of meditation is not only refreshing for our internal system and brain but also helps individuals to boost his or her concentration levels in anything be it studies, sports, work, etc. Nowadays people can also take help from mediation-related apps that will give you instructions and will help you in your meditation process. So start meditating from today and see improvements in your concentration levels. 

How To Increase Concentration While Studying

Determine the most conducive atmosphere for concentration.

Knowing where you can focus best is critical to getting the most out of your time. If you need to be cooped up at a desk in a quiet room, make sure you have a designated study area and inform your family or roommates that you will not be disturbed. For others, a coffeehouse might be preferable, but keep in mind that public areas can quickly get crowded and noisy.

Minimize distractions 

It will be tough to concentrate on your studies if you have the television on and a dozen tabs open on your computer browser. Remove any distractions from your desk, including your phone.

Write a to-do list 

When you look at all you have to accomplish, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. Breaking down your learning into smaller activities can help you manage your time and give you a sense of achievement. This method also clarifies your objectives, making it more difficult to become lost in your task.

Schedule study time

Set aside time in your weekly plan to study rather than scrambling to meet deadlines. In the long term, you’ll become accustomed to studying at a certain time each day, avoiding the unneeded stress that cramming sessions or all-nighters might create.

Make healthy snack choices 

Don’t let food get the best of you. Choose foods that will help you feel energized rather than those that will make you feel drowsy. Again, organizing your study time may make a significant impact. If you’re heading directly from work to class or the library, for example, bring a nutritious snack to keep you going instead of relying on the vending machine or fast food.

Take breaks

Our brains aren’t designed to study for long periods of time without a break. Instead, concentrate on a project for 30 to 45 minutes, then take a little break before moving on to the next thing on your list.

Now that you have reached the end, we are sure you have found the right answer on How to increase concentration. Concentration comes along if you have opted for the right career path. If you are struggling in finding the right one for yourself, reach out to Leverage Edu, our experts will help you land on the best career pathway that lines with your interests.