I have an adorable Sheltie dog, named Lincoln. He is built for cold weather and rain and it does not matter the weather, or what he is up to around the house we only have to whisper the word “walk” and he’s there. He comes running, tail wagging and sits at the door - if you can call it sitting the way his rump wiggles around in excitement. Often we’re just not quite ready yet and he starts whining and soon small yips escape his mouth even though he knows he’s not to bark. His absolute focus is remarkable - he loves walks.
He does not so much love training. Sit and stay while we walk away seems painful to him. He sits for a little while and then runs to us excited to reunite. (He is a herding dog after all; it is his goal to keep his people all together!) His focus is lacking.
Should I just give up? After all, he does not seem to be able to focus on sitting for just a minute! What if it is just his nature? What if it’s just who he is?
Good News in Focus!
Focus (mine, yours, your student’s or Lincoln’s!) is not a character trait! You are not just born this way. You can grow and change and become more and more focused.
Do you struggle to pay attention to your favorite hobby? Does your student struggle to pay attention when playing games? Probably not! This means you are capable of focus.
The eating nails approach to focus
“I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’” Muhamed Ali
Some people say that life is just full of hard things and chores and you just have to knuckle down and do it. The end result will be worth it. This has a grain of truth in it, but it is not the best way to learn or grow. Isn’t life more than a struggle to drag yourself through?
The Journey is the Destination
One way to improve focus, general happiness, as well as improve learning, is to make it about the journey. Sure some days are hard, but adventures are hard. Frodo didn’t love wet nights, no hot breakfast and no second breakfast, but that did not stop him from having an amazing and life changing adventure.
Can you change your struggle to an adventure? Instead of saying “I have to” you can change your thinking to “I choose to”, “I get to” or even “This math adventure may be hard, but it is taking me down some new paths. I wonder where I’ll end up?”
When we change life from a list of chores to a grand adventure we can learn to find joy in the journey and not only in the destination. We can learn to find pleasure in the difficulties; they become challenges to overcome instead of barriers to stop us.
This Is Not Very Practical
You may be thinking that all this attitude change is not very practical. You came here for practical answers right? Things you can do to change your outcomes. I have those too and likely you’ve heard them before because they are common sense, but for some reason we don’t like to actually change our habits and take action do we? That requires focus… (do you feel like you’re on a never ending treadmill of distraction and hopelessness? Just wait!)
Change Your Environment
It’s pretty easy to understand how our environment can distract us. I’d like to challenge you to do just ONE change at a time to see what works for you.
Avoid Distractions (duh!)
-clear off your workspace of clutter
-leave your phone in another room - there are excellent studies that show that having your phone on your desk beside you -even if you don’t touch it - reduces productivity
-include plants in your space - they increase inspiration
-BUT embrace healthy distractions This seems counterintuitive; however, if you’re working and your child comes in to talk you’ll never regret the time you spent investing in that relationship, besides it recharges us when have close human interaction. Oh - and don’t forget to hug them while they’re there.
Use Tech Intentionally
-shut off notifications on devices and computers
-use apps to shut off distracting apps during work periods (then don’t disable them!)
-try the Pomodoro method Taking predetermined breaks from focused work for short periods improves productivity, mood, and can make your task seem more manageable. (source here)
Pomodoro Method? Interruptions to Help Focus?
The Pomodoro method is a system that manages work time - alternating a longer work period and short intentional breaks.
You choose how long to focus for and how long your break is. A general idea is 25 min focus then 5 min. break. The trick is to use this break to get up and moving, connect with someone else or get into nature or fresh air. Staying at your desk and picking up your phone to scroll is counter-productive. Also, be sure you set a timer to beep when your break is up so you don’t spend the rest of the afternoon sitting in the sun!
Go ahead and try it out. Test different time intervals. You should recognize that at first it will feel weird being interrupted. That is ok. The break will allow you to focus much better when you return.
Does this work for everyone? Of course not. I, in fact, cannot do this. Coming back from the break and refocusing is a problem for me. However, a quiet alarm every hour to drink a cup of water gets me up to get a drink, and keeps me hydrated.
Speaking of Hydration
Taking care of your body is an important part of learning to focus more effectively.
Sleep Scheduling - when will you go to bed and get up? Keep this consistent and if possible, get outside in the daylight as soon after waking as possible since it will help to clear the cortisol from your brain and wake up.
Coffee - there is a great debate about coffee and only you can decide what is right for you, but if you do drink coffee be sure to wait for 2-3 hours after you get up. I know, I know! But you need that coffee to feel alert, right? Did you know that that coffee gives you a feeling of alertness, while trapping your sleep cortisol in your body? This means when that coffee wears off, you’ll have all those sleepy hormones still in your body. It’s best to give them a few hours to deplete before enjoying your cuppa.
Nutrition - you cannot expect an engine to run on dirty fuel and you cannot expect your body to function well eating garbage. Limiting sugar - including fruit juice - as well as artificial dyes and chemicals from processed foods will help you in your journey to focus.
Practice
Focus is a skill - something we learn and develop. We can do exercises to practice that focus. Beginning your work session by sitting in your workspace and doing a focus exercise will help train your brain that this is focus time.
Thought Control:
Focus on an object (any object). No need to empty your mind or do anything weird - just look at it. When a thought comes to your mind just notice it and tell it that you’ll deal with that later and show them the back door. If you keep a paper nearby you can make a list of all these things your mind feels it needs to remind you of now that you are quiet!
Enjoy the Moment:
Eating or sucking a mint is a great opportunity for focus training. As you eat, just focus on the taste, texture, how many times you chew. Notice what you are eating and enjoy it. Other thoughts can be told to just wait until later.
There are many of these types of exercises but they all contain the same kernel. Notice your intrusive thoughts and then help them to leave. Thank them if you need to and ask them to leave.
“But I Just Can’t”
Why can you not focus? It usually comes down to not truly believing you can change. Your mind and habits are things you can change. You CAN grow! Don’t give up.
A Lesson from Lincoln
When Lincoln was a puppy (image below for the cute factor!) we chose to work on his training daily. We wanted a dog who would be able to heel nicely when we walked him. He hated the collar, lost his mind with the “halti” training collar guaranteed to make training a breeze. It was slow going. Undaunted, we kept at it day after day until we could walk him around the yard with a treat in our hand to make him stay at heel. The frustrating thing was that as soon as there was any slack on the leash, he’d be at the end of it sniffing around. By continually pulling him back to heel he learned that this was the only place he could walk while on the leash.
Brains Like Puppies
Our brains are just like puppy Lincoln. If we let them, they’ll run all over the place and tangle us all up if we give them enough leash. We can, however, train our brains to “heel” and stay focused on the task at hand if we keep pulling them back and refusing to allow them any space to wander.
How much leash are you giving your thoughts? Are you answering them back and telling them to stay in line? The closer you monitor your thoughts and attitudes the sooner you’ll find increased focus for your tasks.
There are lots of tricks and hacks to help us along the way, but the most important part of focus is just staying on top of it and not allowing your mind to wander. Yes it feels hard. Yes you will have days you feel you are failing hopelessly.
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