The ability to totally concentrate on a task without being distracted is one of the most valuable skills that anyone can develop. The most intelligent, gifted or educated person is unlikely to succeed without being able to focus on important tasks and concentrate totally on their completion.

Any person with even average intelligence who can discipline themselves to concentrate 100% on their highest priorities, will almost certainly achieve better results than supposedly ‘smarter’ people who can’t, don’t or won’t. Whether natural or learned, there’s no doubt that successful people in all fields have well developed concentration skills.

Concentration can be described as the ability to direct your thinking and to focus on the task at hand without being distracted. As children, most of us were able to concentrate, at least on the things that interested us. In fact, it’s possible that one of the reasons our abilities to concentrate seem to deteriorate as we grow older, may be because our parents, teachers and others tried to get us to concentrate on things they wanted us to be interested in rather than the things we were interested in.

Most people, whatever their age, are still able to completely lose themselves in things they enjoy. In these cases, concentrating is rarely difficult. When it’s more likely to be a problem is when we have to do something that we aren’t that interested in, or find boring, or when we are at work.

Then you may find your mind wanders from one thing to another, and you are easily distracted by other things without even noticing. You may find yourself thinking about what you’ll be doing this weekend with your friends, or worrying about your problems.
Many people are easily distracted and stop and start things they are dealing with, or jump from one job to another, wasting vast amounts of time and losing momentum in the process, causing tasks to take dramatically longer than they would have taken if dealt with without diversion.

Making the conscious decision to single-mindedly concentrate on your most important tasks puts you ‘in the zone’ or allows you ‘to get in the flow’. These may be cliches, but they do clearly describe feelings most people are familiar with. I’m sure everyone can remember times when you were being incredibly productive and everything was just going exactly as you wanted it to, almost effortlessly. This can happen almost without us even being aware of it, or with apparently little input on our part.

Sometimes it may even feel like you’re performing in your own film, as if you were being subconsciously driven and guided in your actions, and that everything was just opening up in front of you. You may even feel like a spectator watching a film of yourself. This is actually a common feeling described by sportsmen and women and athletes when they are performing at their absolute peak. They often describe feeling removed from the events, as if watching themselves perform rather than actively participating.

This usually happens when you know exactly what outcome you are expecting, totally concentrate on taking the necessary actions, and fully expect to succeed. Improving your ability to concentrate can massively improve your productivity and make these sort of events the rule rather than the exception.
Improving concentration comes down to practice and willpower. As our minds are designed to carry out more than one thing at a time, it takes discipline and concerted effort to focus all our attention on a single task.

It’s common for our attention to be split in many directions; in fact humans would have been unlikely to have survived as a race without this ability.
You can try to keep your attention on a task by thinking about how pleased you will be to have it behind you and done. Remind yourself that dragging any task out, particularly unpleasant or boring tasks, will just make it seem much worse than it would be if you completed it quickly. That should help to discipline you to return to the task whenever your mind wanders. If you keep forcing youself to refocus your concentration should improve.

Whatever you’re doing, try to get comfortable and keep your body still and take breaks and drink water regularly. If you find yourself fidgeting and losing focus and you can’t easily concentrate, give yourself a short break – try taking some deep breaths, doing some stretching or walk around the room or even go outside. Movement and activity should help to clear your head.

There are ways you can practise concentrating. Sit quietly in a room and look at an object (not the TV!) and give it your full attention, or close your eyes and hold a single picture of an object, scene, or idea in your mind. Pay close attention to all details and consciously block out any other thoughts whenever they enter your mind so that you become immersed in whatever you are concentrating on. If you practise this you’ll find that it will get much easier to concentrate without distractions for longer periods, and you’ll also improve your memory.

Never tell yourself ‘I can’t concentrate’ because you can rest assured this will be a self fulfilling prophecy. But so will saying ‘I can and will concentrate’. When most people say ‘I can’t’ what they’re usually saying is ‘I won’t try’. It’s really all down to your willpower, self discipline and belief.

How well you are able to concentrate single mindedly on your most important tasks at any time will be one of the most decisive of all factors in determining your levels of success and achievement, whatever your walk of life. Anyone who has learned how to fully concentrate and focus on their highest priorities without distractions will be amongst the most productive and successful people in their field, so it’s definitely a skill well worth mastering.

Related posts:

1. Attention and Concentration, How to Concentrate
2. Stress and Concentration
3. Improve Your Concentration By Getting In The Zone
4. Concentrate Better With Hypnosis
5. Iq Mind Brain Memory Focus Concentration Improvement Smarter Success.