How to improve your concentration span

A good attention span makes it easier for us to achieve objectives, we seem to be more intelligent, creative, and can make efficient use of time to do a better job when concentration is high.

What hinders our ability to concentrate?

In a society in which information is readily available digitally, it tends invade our lives and puts us out of focus from a particular task at hand. This encourages us to get by with shorts bursts of high level concentration, such as reading an article, watching a short movie clip or an advertisement, Many of us have a hard time to focus attention on just one action. For example while we are brushing our teeth we are thinking of another situation or event that needs to be dealt with. A simple walk in the park can have your mind racing, while eating, many people watch TV, play games or check their smartphones. Of course this can cause accidents such as dropped food and spilled drinks.

Almost every action we perform everyday is not to its full extent, your body may execute a function automatically but our mind is not assisting 100%, most the time it is wandering in an imaginary world.

Being able to focus on a particular task with full concentration, means being able to reach the goal much quicker.

To improve your ability to concentrate you must begin to act consciously in any activity you do, performing each activity with all total attention. All effort, energy and capacity needs to be mentally focused on achieving a particular goal.

Many say that productivity increases with mentally multitasking, But the reality is that single mental tasks are likely to suffer due to lack of concentration. Computer multitask efficiently, that is because each process is digitally stored while a few nanoseconds break is needed to switch to another task. Upon returning to original task, the computer can pick up from where it left off from a simple memory call. Unfortunately the human brain is not as efficient as that, and can be difficult to return to tasks after being interrupted. Simple things like texting while driving can cause fatal accidents.

Begin by changing your habits, if we are brushing our teeth , try focusing your mind on that moment, feeling the brush over your teeth and gums, the freshness and texture of the toothpaste, the feeling of the water rinsing your mouth out. Be aware of every moment of the action as if it were all that existed. The only important thing to think about is brush your teeth, there is nothing else, there is no past or future, only that moment.

If we take a walk through a park, concentrate on that moment separate ourselves from our mental world of distractions. Observe the surroundings like they are new with no mental interpretations. Feel the energy that emerges from the nature, feel the smells that come to your nose, feel the air that touches your skin as if it were magic.

Actions and daily day experiences can be practiced with full attention and concentration leaving our mental world aside. Little by little, our ability to focus will be increase.

Once you get used to focusing on small daily actions you need to take a step further and achieve a state of concentration that does not dissolve in less than two minutes. You must accustom your mind to be able to concentrate in performing a single action for a long time.

Get into the habit of reading continuously for long periods, reading is one of the best exercises. The reason being is because reading requires both understanding and imagination. Understanding requires you to pay full attention to the words you read and to imagine the experiences that the narrator is trying to describe while at the same time stay focused. With reading books as an exercise, you should aim for 30 minutes of concentrated reading, putting your mind and your skills at the service of interpretation and imagination of the text. With reading exercises you will find that your concentration level will improve. You will also have increased your creativity through imagination,

It is recommended that you investigate and read books on personal development, and wisdom which will force your mind to open up to new possibilities,