One call on your cell phone, one tweet, one instant message can destroy your schedule, forcing you to move meetings or blow off really important things like love and friendship.

Physical: Our inability to concentrate can stem from a lack of sleep hygiene , inattention to good nutrition , and lack of physical activity. We can develop strategies to use our emotions, intellect, and bodies to support our ability to focus.

Commitment to your relationships and giving them the attention they deserve can be hard to do. Managing them while working from home can be even more challenging. Meeting overload : On one hand, the shift to online meetings lets people maximize their time.

People who used to have to travel between offices now can meet with the push of a button. For virtual workers, however, this can be a nightmare. Workers could listen to podcasts and music, and those taking public transportation could read or nap.

If you started to work remotely during the pandemic or beyond, what happened to the travel time you used to spend commuting? You may even have filled that time with more work or multiple tasks that keep you busier than ever without giving your mind a break.

As a result, expectations and commitments make it hard for you to prioritize. but this is partly misleading because they are all interrupting each other so much. The most clear-cut benefit to staying focused at work is increased productivity.

This efficiency can lead to better work performance, which can positively impact your career trajectory. The unsung benefit of learning how to stay focused at work is reduced stress. Focusing on one thing at a time and seeing it through to the end is rewarding. It also closes that task out and gets it off of your plate.

Record triggers that derail you and negatively affect your mood. Notice what environments make you more stressed. Mapping your moods can help you see patterns in your thinking and behavior. Daylio is an app that allows you to track your feelings using visual imagery.

The app shows you videos that represent different moods. You can match your mood to the images, and the app records them. Take a week to notice the times of day when you are most productive. Attend to your most important tasks during that time.

Notice those low-energy times. Practice mental fitness daily. The app Lumosity helps you exercise your mind with scientifically validated tasks while making them fun. Take control of your technology. Disable your phone at certain times a day. That means turning off notifications from social media or opting for a complete digital detox.

Freedom is an app designed to block distractions on all your devices. Just a few minutes of sitting in silence, listening to calming music, and connecting to your breath will help you become centered. InsightTimer is a helpful tool for guided meditations , courses, meditative music, and yoga practices to support your well-being.

Alternatively, you can set timers that remind you to move and breathe at intervals during the day. If you crave sound, but music is too much for you, try listening to a pre-recorded mindfulness meditation.

Do you maintain a healthy schedule for going to bed and getting up? Are you steering away from foods and drinks that keep you awake? Watching the news can be one of the worst things to do before going to bed.

When is it ever good news? Again, there are many apps to help you track your sleep. Take active breaks. Get up and move.

Take a walk. Leave the building. Set a timer on your phone for five minutes, at least five times per day, to stretch. Get yourself a standing desk or try sitting on an exercise ball while working. If you feel like some face-time, try scheduling a walk or run with a friend. Smartwatches are great ways to record miles, times, and distances.

Better to eat snacks with complex carbs and fiber found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts for sustained energy and concentration. Try sticking to just one to two cups of coffee per day. This will keep your energy levels more steady and reduce any cloudy jitters.

We all have twenty-four-hour days. Managing your time effectively will give you time back to take breaks or shift gears between projects. One method worth trying is the Pomodoro Technique. It involves working on a task for 25 minutes and then taking a 5-minute break before starting the next minute sprint.

These short rest periods are enough time to give your brain a break and step away from your desk. For example, this could be to stretch, walk outside, or grab a glass of water. At what time of day do you have the most energy? When you have a large project to do, block off a substantial amount of time that will be distraction-free.

This is beneficial even if you can only manage to do it once or twice per week. Set boundaries and expectations.

Let people know when you are not available and when you will respond to requests. Create blocks of time between meetings to reflect and regroup.

Ask whether you really need to meet. Is there another way to get information that is not time-intensive but still effective? Ask for an agenda for meetings.

Determine whether your presence is needed if your organization allows for the option. Stick to a designated amount of time.

Develop your listening skills by paying active attention to what others say during meetings. Rather than zone out, ask questions. Engage in the discussion to bring value to the meeting or call. Determine your top three priorities. You can determine when you can do those things, perhaps assigning them to non-peak times during the workday.

MIT neuroscientist Dr. Instead of bouncing between different tasks, narrow your focus to one project at a time. To avoid tunnel vision, designate specific chunks of time throughout the day to complete each thing on your to-do list.

You can sort them by priority, time sensitivity, or the amount of time you predict they will take. By taking it one task at a time, you can direct all of your energy towards doing the best job possible.

Although we primarily associate focus with the brain, your attention span and concentration are heavily affected by physical factors. Staying hydrated, getting enough sleep, and keeping consistent exercise habits are all essential towards workplace productivity.

In reality, the two go hand in hand! If possible, work in a quiet setting away from other activities. Keep your phone out of reach, and silence all non-essential notifications. Some people find music distracting, while others find it inspiring.

Through trial and error, you can discover and implement the finer details of your ideal work environment. Taking regular breaks can help avoid this, since it gives your brain time to recalibrate and decompress.

If you find yourself drifting in and out of focus, it may be time for a time-out!

During this time, request that you be left alone or go to a place where others are unlikely to disturb you: a library, a coffee shop, a private room.

Close social media and other apps, silence notifications, and k eep your phone hidden from sight in a bag or backpack. As described in HBR, researchers found that cognitive capacity was significantly better when the phone was out of sight , not just turned off. Keep Your primary focus is to complete what you need to do.

Shutting off both internal and external disturbances can help you to concentrate. Reduce multitasking. Attempting to perform multiple activities at the same time makes us feel productive. And lower productivity can lead to burnout.

Examples of multitasking include listening to a podcast while responding to an email or talking to someone over the phone while writing your report.

Such multitasking not only hampers your ability to focus but compromises your work quality. Practice mindfulness and meditation. Meditating or practicing mindfulness activities can strengthen well-being and mental fitness and improve focus. During the meditation process, our brain becomes calmer and our whole body becomes more relaxed.

We focus on our breath during the process so that we will not be distracted by our minds. With practice, we can learn to use our breath to bring our attention back to a particular task so that it can be done well even if we get interrupted.

Get more sleep. Many factors affect your sleep. One of the most common is reading from an electronic device like a computer, phone, or tablet or watching your favorite movie or TV show on an LED TV just before bedtime.

Research has shown that such devices emit light towards the blue end of the spectrum. Such light will stimulate your eye retina and prevent the secretion of melatonin that promotes sleep anticipation in the brain. Use a filter or "blue light" glasses to minimize such blue light or avoid all electronic devices before bed.

Other ways to improve sleep include avoiding exercise late in the day, staying hydrated throughout the day, using journaling or breathing exercises to quiet the mind, and creating a predictable bedtime routine and schedule.

Choose to focus on the moment. It might feel counterintuitive when you feel unable to concentrate, but remember that you choose where you focus. It's tough to concentrate when your mind is always in the past and worrying about the future. Acknowledge the impact, what you felt, and what you learned from it, then let it go.

Similarly, acknowledge your concerns about the future, consider how you are experiencing that anxiety in your body, then choose to let it go. We want to train our mental resources to focus on the details of what matters at the moment.

Our minds go in the direction we choose to focus. Take a short break. This also might seem counterintuitive, but when you focus on something for a long time, your focus may begin to die down. You may feel more and more difficulty devoting your attention to the task. Researchers have found that our brains tend to ignore sources of constant stimulation.

Taking very small breaks by refocusing your attention elsewhere can dramatically improve mental concentration after that. The next time you are working on a project, take a break when you begin to feel stuck.

Move around, talk to someone, or even switch to a different type of task. You will come back with a more focused mind to keep your performance high. Connect with nature. Research has found that even having plants in office spaces can help increase concentration and productivity, as well as workplace satisfaction and better air quality.

Finding time to take a walk in the park or appreciating the plants or flowers in your garden can boost your concentration and help you feel refreshed. Train your brain. Scientific research is starting to amass evidence on the ability of brain training activities to enhance cognitive abilities, including concentration, in adults.

Such brain training games for concentration can also help you develop your working and short-term memory, as well as your processing and problem-solving skills.

Examples of such games include jigsaw puzzles, sudoku, chess, and brain-stimulating video games. Start your day with simple exercise and get your body moving. According to the May issue of the Harvard Men's Health Watch, regular exercise releases chemicals key for memory, concentration, and mental sharpness.

Other research found that exercise can boost the brain's dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin levels and all these will affect focus and attention.

Individuals who do some form of exercise or sports perform better on cognitive tasks when compared with those who have poor physical health. Physical movement helps relax the muscles and relieve tension in the body.

Since the body and mind are so closely linked, when your body feels better so, too, will your mind. Listen to music. Music has been shown to have therapeutic effects on our brains. Light music may help you to concentrate better, but some music may distract you.

Experts generally agree that classical music and nature sounds, such as water flowing, are good choices for concentration while music with lyrics and human voices may be distracting. Multiple apps and services offer background music and soundscapes designed for different types of focus and work needs.

Eat well. Choose foods that moderate blood sugar, maintain energy, and fuel the brain. Fruits, vegetables, and high-fiber foods can keep your blood sugar levels even. Reduce sugary foods and drinks that cause spikes and dips in your sugar levels make you feel dizzy or drowsy.

Your brain needs lots of good fat to function properly. Nuts, berries, avocados, and coconut oil are all great ways to get healthy fats into your diet and help your brain run more smoothly. Research has found that foods like blueberries can boost concentration and memory for up to 5 hours after consumption due to an enzyme that stimulates the flow of oxygen and blood to the brain, helping with memory as well as our ability to focus and learn new information.

Leafy green vegetables such as spinach contain potassium which accelerates the connections between neurons and can make our brain more responsive. Set a daily priority. Write down what you want to accomplish each day , ideally the night before, and identify a single priority that you commit to accomplishing.

This will help focus your brain on what matters, tackling the big jobs first and leaving the small stuff till later. Break large tasks into smaller bytes so that you will not be overwhelmed.

Identifying true priorities can help relieve distracting anxiety, and achieving small daily goals can wire your brain to achieve success.

Create space for work. Create a calm dedicated space for work , if possible. Not everyone can have a well-appointed office, but desk organizers, noise-canceling headphones, an adjustable monitor, and adjustable lighting can help.

Clear clutter out of sight, make it as ergonomic and comfortable as possible, and try to keep your space neat and ventilated. Use a timer. Train your brain to hyper-focus on a task by using a timer or phone alarm. First, decide what task you want to complete.

Set your timer for 20 minutes generally not more than 30 minutes and concentrate on the task. When the alarm rings take a short break for 5 minutes.

You can either take a walk and do some stretching exercise, then reset the timer and start again. This technique has shown to be effective to improve your concentration. Switch tasks. While we may want to concentrate on a particular task, sometimes we get stuck and our brain needs something fresh to focus on.

Try switching to other tasks or something you love to do. Switching tasks can help you stay alert and productive for a longer period. Learning how to improve focus and concentration is not something you can achieve overnight. Professional athletes like golfers, sprinters, gymnasts take plenty of time to practice and usually have a coach so that they can concentrate and get the right move at the right moment to achieve excellence.

The first step to strengthen your concentration is to recognize how it is affecting your life. If you are struggling to meet commitments, constantly sidetracked by the unimportant, or not moving toward your aspirations, it is time to get help with concentration so that you can focus on what matters most to you.

Learning how to concentrate at work is essential for succeeding in your career and life. By improving your concentration, you will find that you can accomplish more of what you value and feel better doing it. Just announced!

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Whether you organize your tasks in a to-do list, app, or online calendar, writing down what you need to get done is a helpful way to organize your day. Sometimes, stepping away from your work is just what you need to refocus your attention. Take a walk, make yourself lunch, or get coffee with a friend.

Even if the thought of stepping away from your work seems impossible, doing so can actually help boost brain function and improve concentration. Try out the Pomodoro Technique to work in breaks throughout your day. With this method, you work in minute increments followed by short, 5-minute breaks.

Then, take a longer to minute break. Limiting distractions while you work is often easier said than done, especially if you work from a home office. Your work environment should also be welcoming and comfortable. Create a space that will inspire you to get to work and make doing so easy.

While you may no longer have to deal with that loud coworker who sat next to you, hallway meetings outside your office, or pop-in conversations with your boss, noise can still be a distraction when you work for yourself.

If neighborhood, household, or co-working space noises are an issue, try listening to instrumental music or use a white noise app to filter out distracting sounds. Everyone accomplishes their best work at different hours of the day and in different ways.