Can’t Focus? 8 Ways to Improve Your Concentration
Published January 9th, 2024
4 min read
Many different factors can affect concentration. We share eight helpful strategies to recharge your brain and keep you focused and on task.
Written by Simon Spichak
Are you having problems staying on task because your mind keeps drifting? Finding it difficult to avoid distractions? Feeling like your attention span is at an all-time low? Everyone struggles with focus and concentration — we compiled some evidence-based strategies to help you get back on track.
Make a plan
Before you get started working, outline what you want to accomplish. Use a checklist or whiteboard to break down tasks into smaller chunks and plan how much time you want to spend on each task. Having a plan will help keep you focused and on track.
Take regular breaks
Like muscles, the brain gets tired from exertion. Working or studying for hours can lead to mental exhaustion, which affects the prefrontal cortex. When the prefrontal cortex is exhausted, you cannot think and concentrate, tune out distractions, or resist checking your phone or social media.
Taking regular breaks helps refuel the prefrontal cortex, reduce stress, and keep you on track. Make sure that the things you do on your break don’t require a lot of brain power — instead of surfing the web, get up and go for a short walk or pause to have tea or coffee.
One strategy involves using the Pomodoro technique: Working in 25-minute chunks with a five-minute break in between. Make sure to take a longer break after a few hours.
Avoid social media
The allure of the endless scroll, the hit of a new post you made gaining traction and likes, and excitement about finding the next viral post is hard to resist.
Blocking social media from your work set-up is the easiest way to avoid distraction. Delete the social media apps from your phone. If you’re on a laptop or desktop, log out from social media. Checking social media becomes more difficult, putting an effective roadblock between you and the news feed.
Listen to music or ambient sound
Setting up the perfect productivity playlist could boost your mood and reduce stress. Some people prefer classical music, jazz, nature sounds, or epic soundtracks from movies. You can experiment with different types of music to see what genre works best for you.
Don’t skip breakfast
When you’re stressed and have a lot on your plate, you might skip breakfast. You’ll be hungry and more distracted whether you notice it or not. So, even though you might get to work sooner, you won’t be as effective at concentrating or tuning out distractions.
Eating a healthy breakfast sets you up for success, boosts academic performance, and fuels the brain for the tasks ahead. Breakfast foods like eggs, berries, and oatmeal help start your day off right.
Get enough sleep
Still can’t focus even though you’ve gone out of your way to reduce distractions and block off social media? Maybe the problem is sleep.
It is ideal to get seven to eight hours of sleep each night. Pulling an all-nighter or staying up very late leaves the body with little rest. Sleep helps consolidate memory, removes waste products from the brain, and enhances cognitive function.
Cut down on alcohol
After a night of drinking, your concentration and brain activity are impaired. Alcohol makes it harder for the parts of the brain that control concentration, tune out distractions, and higher-order thinking to work properly. It also negatively affects your sleep quality.
If alcohol is causing you problems, consider cutting down on your drinking and speak with a therapist or doctor if you need help.
Avoid multitasking
Humans are very bad at multitasking.
Whenever you switch focus to a separate task — like checking your email, scrolling through social media, or switching between YouTube videos — it takes extra time for the brain to get back on task.
Switching tasks takes energy, reduces productivity, and makes remembering and consolidating information harder. Focusing on one task at a time will always be more efficient than completing five tasks simultaneously.
Medical conditions that affect concentration
There are some medical reasons that you might not be able to focus. Treating and learning to manage these conditions could help improve your focus:
Executive dysfunction
Long COVID
Insomnia
Sleep apnea
Heart disease
How therapy can help improve your concentration
Therapists can help set you up for success by determining why you’re having trouble focusing. They can support you by sharing accessibility tools that make managing your busy workday easier, sharing strategies that help you avoid distractions, and treating the symptoms of mental health conditions that make it harder to focus.
If you want to find out how our therapists can help, you can book a free consultation.
Please note that this post is written for educational purposes; it is not therapy. If you need to talk to a professional, please book a consultation with a psychotherapist through Resolvve.
