How to focus on one thing. To do this you need to concentrate, how to learn concentration. Doing only one thing at a time

The Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset wrote:

Each fate is tragic in the deepest sense of the word for someone who does not penetrate into the essence of life, but only glides over its surface.

Alarming symptoms

How often during a conversation do you want to interrupt the person with the words "short" or "get to the point"? Do you often grab your smartphone while watching an interesting TV series or movie, don't listen to people, but only imitate attention, get annoyed over trifles?

Our attention has become so defocused that it is sometimes difficult for us to keep it on one thing for more than 10 minutes. If you think that this is normal for the modern world, then we hasten to upset you.

These are the first symptoms of attention deficit disorder. Think of it as the letters SOS, which say that the "muscle" of attention must be urgently taken to the "gym".

The cost of distractions

Did you know that the average person wastes almost two out of eight hours during a workday? Half of this time he goes from one site to another. Inc. magazine calculated that the total cost of idleness in the US alone is $ 544 billion.

The average person gets distracted 200 times during the day. At the same time, 118 times we reach out to our smartphones with our playful hands, 52 times we are distracted by friends, relatives and colleagues, and 30 distractions are our everyday needs. For example, we suddenly wonder how old Matt Damon was, and we drop everything and go to Wikipedia.

How to learn to concentrate

Our brains, fortunately, have such a thing as neuroplasticity. To put it simply: regular practice can change everything.

Learn something

The easiest way to improve concentration and mindfulness is to start doing something that you haven't done before. For example, if you drive a car with an automatic transmission, change to a car with a manual transmission. Use your imagination: sign up for salsa lessons, master the recipe for salmon farfalle.

Fight entropy

Our brain is so arranged that if it sees a lack of structure somewhere, it begins to worry. He wants to find a structure in everything: he needs all things to be written in a diary, so that on the computer desktop and in yours, he needs a clear schedule of the day, he needs to understand what time he will be fed.

Did you know, for example, that clutter in a room directly affects excess weight? This makes sense: the more disorder, the more stress and entropy. So take the time to create structure throughout.

Don't forget about empathy

And one more thing that helps us to concentrate. Empathy and deep, harmonious relationships with people make us more balanced and focused.

When we take care of other people, we feel calm and happy. So another way to stay focused is to genuinely want to help other people.

What is the result

Today, it is critically important to be able to control your mind, to develop it in accordance with your desires, and not with other people's whims, to be able to resist the sucking effect of the whirlpool of useless information, useless ideas and idle chatter. Having developed in yourself the ability to a state that allows you not only to create new ideas, but also to bring them to a real embodiment, you will be able to manage life without letting it rule you.

Concentrate on good ideas. And truly take control of your life.

Attention is one of the unique human abilities. It, like many other functions, requires training. Here are some tips for how.

1. You need to know what factors interfere with concentration. To do this, you need to observe yourself. What are you usually distracted by?

2. Many people take pride in their ability to do many things at once. In fact, anyone can fully concentrate on only one thing in order to get the maximum result.

14. During work, pauses are very important with switching attention to something extraneous. This can be a walk, talking with colleagues, showering, watching a video.

15. General physical condition also affects the quality of work. If a person maintains his body in good shape, it will be easier for him to do this with his thought processes.

16. While performing any tasks it is better to isolate yourself from all life's problems.

17. It is very important to see the end goal - then.

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Concentration is necessary in order to learn how to work with the power of your consciousness, manage your life, and live 100%. Learn more about concentration, how it works, and how to develop it.

The power of concentration can be compared to the effect of a magnifying glass. If we take a piece of paper and direct a ray of the sun through a magnifying glass, then the strength of this influence can be such that the paper will catch fire.

Imagine, for the first time in your life you heard about the effect of a magnifying glass, came to your home, took a magnifying glass and paper, began to direct a ray of the sun through a magnifying glass, but forgot that you need to persistently hold the glass in one place. You start driving them in all directions, and nothing happens. And this is the reason why people fail to achieve any effect or result. They are unable to concentrate their thoughts on one thing, their thoughts wander. They want something, they hope for something, they are here and there, and there is no structure, no organization in their thoughts.

Catching up on the power of consciousness, it is necessary in some way structure your thought process... Because a person's thoughts are constantly moving, they are here and there, and in order to make them purposeful, a structure is needed.

One of the techniques for mastering the power of your consciousness is contemplation, concentration of attention, thoughts... The technique of contemplation is reduced to the fact that we have to choose some one concept, one idea, one thought, one law, an object, and think only about it.

Think of only one thing at a time... In this way, the discipline of the mind is brought up, because in a natural way, consciousness tends to rush from one corner to another and dissipate. Naturally, consciousness is able to focus on some subject for a very short time, and after that, it strives to jump over to something else.

Our consciousness is like a spoiled child. It wants to do that, and when it is convenient for it. Consciousness thinks it has the right to think about whatever it pleases, and it is very lazy. I want to remind you once again that you are not your consciousness. And each of you should not identify yourself with your consciousness. Consciousness needs to be disciplined, consciousness needs to be trained, and of course it needs to be controlled.

It is not at all necessary that your mind will like your efforts.

Suddenly, all of a sudden, you begin to control it. And be sure that the consciousness is cunning enough, and it will constantly strive to escape, evade, from those exercises that you will impose on it. Consciousness is very inventive, it just doesn't want to strain. And when we still talk about programming consciousness, we will come back to this issue.

We must strive to ensure that once we have established a program for consciousness, having set a goal, we should strive to complete it, regardless of how our consciousness will react to it.

Right from this moment, we should speak, tell our consciousness what it should think about. I suggest you do the exercise.

The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate, to illustrate, the power of your consciousness. And the power of concentration.

Concentration - practice, exercise

Now, for three minutes, we will reflect, we will contemplate one idea, one law. It is suggested to start with a thought, with the first law of consciousness: Thoughts have real power.

This is the very law according to which every thought has power. When you contemplate this law, try to focus only on the topic itself, on the subject of this law. Those. we admit into our consciousness only those thoughts that are associated with this law. But, if we suddenly get distracted and think about something else, then this has no relation to our law, and such thoughts must be driven away. And as soon as we noticed that consciousness slips away, jumps to another object, we very gently pull it back and force us to contemplate this law.

In the process, we must ask questions related to the topic we are thinking about. For example: “What does it mean - that thought has real power? How does this manifest in my life? " We can approach this thought from different angles, we can ask additional questions. But the most important thing is not to deviate from the central theme of our reflections. To begin with, it is suggested to start, for example, with three minutes.

Go... though, a couple more words of advice:

Thought has real power... You can start with repetition, thought has real power ... thought has real power ... Then you can ask yourself, what is meant by this power? Electricity is also power, maybe it is similar to electricity. After all, what is force, force is that which performs any action, sets it in motion. What can set my thoughts in motion? And maybe here you remember some examples from your life, any situations that are associated with the operation of this law. Or maybe some example from your life will come to mind in which you could use your thought as power, as a source of power.

And you can move in many different directions, but most importantly, do not deviate from this main, fundamental theme. Those. do not let your consciousness stray far from the main theme of contemplation.

You can close your eyes, or you can keep them open, it's as convenient as anyone.

And so, now for 3 minutes, you are contemplating the first law that we talked about, according to which thought has real power.

You can start ...

After you have finished, admit honestly to yourself who found it difficult during these 3 minutes to keep consciousness on one topic. It can be assumed that most of you had problems thinking about one thing all the time. I can assume that your consciousness, for several seconds, stubbornly contemplated this thought, and then began to jump off and switch to something else. And you could probably tell yourself, "It can't be that 3 minutes dragged on that long." Or suddenly, you might be distracted by a sound.

Consciousness is very lazy, and the first step in mastering the power of consciousness is to convince it that it is necessary to train. Nobody does anything for free - including your consciousness. Your consciousness needs to be interested in something, something to motivate, and you can motivate it only by one force. You have to tell your consciousness that if it trains hard it will gain much - more strength.

This is no exaggeration. You really have to persuade, and beg your own consciousness. For example, if we physically do not feel well, we know this, because it is easy to determine, as a rule, something hurts or bothers us. This is all pretty obvious. But we can't even imagine how out of order our own consciousness is. And it is understandable why we do not know anything about this, because many have never trained their own consciousness.

But remember, when was the last time you did some special exercise to discipline your own consciousness? Most people, in a completely un disciplined and unorganized way, think about anything. If you are physically ill or unwell, or are in poor physical shape, you decide to do some exercise, start going to the gym, train on special simulators. And naturally, in the early days, your results are quite unimportant.

You try to pull up, do push-ups, and after ten times, you are no longer capable of anything, you sit down on an exercise bike, and after 3 minutes, you can no longer move your leg. But if you exercise every day, or at least every other day, then very quickly, your results will improve. You can do push-ups already 30-40 times, and on a stationary bike, spend about 20 minutes, and not 3 minutes as at the beginning. And this is absolutely understandable.

But the same thing happens with consciousness. And probably, those results with contemplation that you have demonstrated for yourself are not the best that you are capable of, and this is your worst possible result. Your numbers have been the worst right now. This is how contemplation goes if it is not preceded by training. But with training, your mind will become more disciplined, and capable of much better performance. In the same way as it happens with the physical body after sports.

The best side and aspect of mastering the power of consciousness, this is not theory, and this is not philosophy, — this is practice.

Any area of \u200b\u200blife in which you train and practice, allows you to get results. But of course, until you can fully understand all this, for you, now it is just information. But if you learn how to exercise according to the individual program that you create for yourself, you will quickly notice significant results.

Exercises to develop concentration.

The following are exercises to develop concentration. The key to success for each of them is the psychological attitude "there is nowhere to rush, everything that happens around is not decisive at the moment."

"Heart of a rose«

An excerpt from Mark Fisher's book "The Millionaire's Secret". Every self-respecting future millionaire must read the entire book:

“Set aside some time each day to concentrate on the heart of the rose. If you don't have a rose at hand, concentrate on any flower, black dot or shiny object. Calmly repeat the formula of my teacher: "Be calm and know that I am the Lord." Stare at the rose or the black point, without looking up, longer and longer. When you can watch without stopping for twenty minutes, your concentration will reach an excellent level. When your heart becomes like this rose, your whole life will be transformed. "

After reading the book, I didn't give this exercise the attention it really deserves. But the exercise came to me again, now in Robin S. Sharma's book, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari:

“There is one way to control the mind that is superior to all others. This is a favorite trick of the sages of Sivana, who taught me it, giving me great confidence. Within twenty-one days after applying it, I began to feel more cheerful, inspired and energetic than before. This technique is more than four thousand years old. It's called the Heart of the Rose. All you need for this exercise is a freshly cut rose and a quiet place. This is best done in a natural setting, but a quiet room is fine. Direct your gaze to the center of the rose, to its heart. Yogi Raman told me that a rose is very similar to life: on the path of life you will encounter thorns, but if faith is with you and you believe in your dreams, you will eventually overcome the thorns and achieve the beauty of a flower. Look closely at the rose. Pay attention to its color, structure and shape. Enjoy its fragrance and think only of this beautiful creature in front of you. First, other thoughts will come to you, distracting you from the heart of the rose. This is a sign of an untrained mind. But don't worry, improvement is coming soon. Just return your attention to the object of concentration. Soon your consciousness will become stronger and more controlled. This ritual must be performed daily, otherwise it will not work. The first few days it will be hard for you to devote even five minutes to it. Most of us live in such a frantic rhythm that true silence and stillness sometimes becomes something alien and uncomfortable. Most people, upon hearing my words, will say that they have no time to sit and look at the flower. They will tell you that they don't have time to just enjoy the laughter of children or run barefoot in the rain. They will say they are too busy for such a thing. They don't even have friends, because friends also take time. "

"Vipassana«

The word "Vipassana", translated from the ancient Indian language Pali, means "to see reality as it is." Vipassana is one of the oldest meditation techniques. It originated in India over 2500 years ago as a universal remedy for all misfortunes, as an art of living.

In his book “The Way to the Fool. Philosophy of Laughter ". Grigory Kurlov offers a somewhat simplified instruction for the technique:

“Sit back. Try to remove any tension in the body. For a while, just sit and just breathe. Breathing is completely free and natural, without delay - a smooth inhalation turns into an equally smooth exhalation.

Now bring all your attention to the tip of the nose. It is proposed to "place" in it all of oneself, all of one's consciousness. This is necessary so that not a single nuance of the breathing process escapes you.

So, your consciousness is at the tip of your nose - you track every breath, you follow every breath. You are totally engaged in this process, all your attention is absorbed by it and is not distracted by anything else.

Keep your attention only at one point. Track the sensations accompanying the breath, they will become more and more subtle.

If consciousness is distracted by switching to sensations in the body, gently return it to the same point. A thought flashed through, breaking through, you noticed it - return your consciousness to the starting point. "

Exercise "Clock"

Pick an evening time when your room starts to get dark.
Place a mechanical watch with a second hand on the table.
Sit comfortably. Relax.
Watch how the second hand of the watch makes its revolution, concentrating on its tip.
You don't need to think about anything - just look at the arrow, or, as a last resort, just think about the tip of the arrow.
Achieve such a result in which no extraneous thought interrupts your concentration during the revolution of the second hand. Never compromise: if distracted means the exercise does not count; but in this case, finish it to the end.

Only this practice will allow you to get the result and consolidate it as a sustainable skill.

Concentrating on the candle flame

A dark room is required.
Remove all sound sources.
Take a thin wax candle and make a mark on it. Stand it upright and light it.
Sit comfortably. Relax.
Concentrate on the candle flame and don't be distracted by anything else.
Your task is to wait until the candle burns down to the mark you made, concentrating on its flame, not being distracted by anything else. Whenever you have extraneous thoughts distracting you from contemplating the flame, bend your finger on your hand. Ten is usually not enough to count how many times you have been distracted. Therefore, the first mark should not be made lower than one centimeter from the top edge - for a start, learn not to be distracted on a short section. Further increase the distance until you learn to concentrate during the burning of at least half of the thinnest church candle.

6 x 6 x 6

Walking the streets of the city or taking a walk in the park can also train concentration. As you inhale, focus on counting your steps. Count to six and hold your breath for another 6 steps, and then exhale while counting another 6 steps. Even 10-15 minutes of such walks a day will have a positive effect on your concentration.

At the end of the article, we present one more quote from "The Secret of a Millionaire":

“Through concentration exercises, your mind will become strong and confident, and you will realize that life's problems no longer dominate you. Then you will understand what I am about to say now. Don't let this seem obvious and trivial to you. A problem is only a problem when you think it is a problem.

What does this mean? Any event, if you do not consider it serious and truly significant, will not be either serious or truly significant in your eyes. The problems seem enormous and insurmountable as much as your mind is weak. The stronger it is, the more insignificant your problems will seem. This is the secret of eternal peace. So concentrate. Concentration is one of the most important ingredients for success.

In fact, our whole life is a long exercise in concentration. The soul is immortal. Traveling from one life to another, the mind gradually develops and opens itself. This is a long journey of discipleship. Only those who have reached a high level of concentration are able to achieve their goals. Of course, not all of them purposefully engaged in special exercises, but during their previous lives on earth, these people have reached the required level of concentration, which now makes it easier for them to achieve success compared to most people. When your mind reaches the highest degree of concentration, you will enter a world where dreams and reality literally coincide. "

And yet, knowledge is only potential power. Only through practice can one realize and feel the full power of each of these exercises.

Some more useful BONUSES:

A set of exercises for your consciousness

Logic exercise

Any situation in the first place requires that you sort it out in cold blood.

At the same time, the first step is to realize how rational your own mental state is at the moment, to eliminate inadequate nervous tension. Then, in the process of logical comprehension of the situation and the elimination of negative emotions associated with it, you can use several techniques. It is often possible to relieve nervous tension by simple self-conviction. Mental protection is based on the fact that difficult situations bring up the ability to derive some benefit even from failure.
Exercise on imagery

For those with a penchant for artistic thinking, a game-based technique is helpful. For example, doing some kind of hard and strenuous work, you can imagine yourself in the form of a literary or movie - a hero. The ability to vividly recreate an image for imitation in one's thoughts, to "enter the role" helps to acquire one's own style of behavior over time.
Imagination exercise

The ability to tune in or relieve stress is helped by the use of imagination. Each person has in his memory situations in which he experienced peace, pacification, relaxation. For some it is a beach, a pleasant feeling of relaxation on the warm sand after swimming, for others - mountains, clean fresh air, blue sky, snowy peaks. From such situations, it is necessary to choose the most significant one that is really capable of causing the necessary emotional experiences.
Distraction exercise

There may be states when it is difficult to resort to active methods. This is often associated with severe fatigue. In such cases, you can remove the burden of mental stress using the shutdown method. The tool can be a book that you re-read many times without losing interest, your favorite music, a movie.
Muscle tone management

Muscle tone is a significant indicator of overall emotional well-being. As a rule, mental stress is combined with muscle tension, and this - through impulses from the muscles entering the brain - further increases the nervous load. Therefore, the ability to manage muscle tone is of great importance. It is worth frowning, it becomes really sad. Conversely, a smile can do wonders. The ability to smile even in a difficult situation, remove unnecessary stiffness and tension increases a person's ability to better realize his potential.
Conscious breathing

Breathing is essential for the regulation of mental processes.

The ability to breathe correctly is a necessary foundation for success in mastering self-control methods. The individual methods of breathing exercises are described in more detail below.

But first I would like to note that even the simplest breathing techniques can give a very tangible positive result when you need to quickly calm down or, conversely, increase the overall tone.

The importance of the rhythm of breathing is great. The soothing rhythm is that each exhale is twice as long as the inhalation.

You can also use a technique such as holding your breath. To do this, you need to take a deep breath and hold your breath for 20-30 seconds. Subsequent exhalation and deep compensatory inhalation have a stabilizing effect on the nervous system.

Single-tasking

First rule: Concentrate on one thing only. We are all often distracted because modern society has unrealistic expectations of us. They want us to consume oceans of information without stopping. We must be constantly available to her. Many are responding to this alarming increase in demands by focusing on multiple tasks at once. And this approach does not do us good.

We suffer from a fundamentally incorrect stereotype: they say, it is necessary to do several things at the same time in order to cope with the burden of modern problems. But multitasking tactics are usually confusing.

It's hard for us to concentrate. Our attention is scattered. We become impolite. Our productivity is declining. We are losing control over the surrounding reality. We pretend to be doing a lot. Why are we pretending? Because our brain is not capable of fully working on more than one task at a time. Any neurophysiologist will confirm this.

Senseless worries about events that have already taken place or groundless worries about the future are the main and indefatigable plunderers of our time. We also get in the way of thinking about what others will say.

The first step towards overcoming all of these obstacles is to achieve full awareness. Notice to yourself what your thoughts revolve around. Is this some kind of specific "splinter" from the past? Or have you formed a habit of worrying about the twists and turns that may await you in the future?

Remind yourself that such thoughts are not only useless, but also counterproductive: they prevent us from being present "here and now." We are unable to change the past, predict the future, or establish control over other people. At this particular moment, we can only focus on solving a specific problem, which will make a positive contribution to our life, our work and the reality that is bubbling around us.

To-do lists

When we try to remember all the things that we have to do in the foreseeable future, this often turns into an additional stressful load. But if we put the list of tasks on paper, then we take off the burden of fears that we might forget something.

A person is able to simultaneously keep 7-9 cases in memory. Making a list frees up mental resources so that you can focus on one specific task and not be distracted by worrying thoughts about other responsibilities.

By using lists, we can sort and structure a seemingly overwhelming mountain of tasks, focus on the most relevant one, and maximize efficiency.

The ugliest frog

Mark Twain once said that if you eat a frog in the morning, the rest of the day promises to be wonderful, since the worst for today is over. Your “frog” is your biggest and most important job, the one that you most often put on the back burner. However, it is she who at the moment will positively affect your achievements, and most importantly, your life.

The first rule of eating frogs is to start with the nastiest of the two.

In other words, if you have two important jobs to do, start with the larger, more complex, and most important. Train yourself to get down to business without delay, to bring it to the end, and only then move on to another.

Rule "25 minutes"

To reduce the temptation to postpone a task, each active phase of the project should take no more than 25 minutes.

This technique involves breaking a task into 25-minute periods, the completion of which is tracked by a timer. Each such period is followed by a short break. After four periods of work, a longer break follows.

The technique is especially effective when you need to do something you don't want to do at all. When we know that we will work on a task for 25 minutes, and as soon as the timer rings, we can distract ourselves, it becomes psychologically easier to do the work.

Distractions

You must create a positive work environment for yourself that is conducive to being productive. Eliminate all possible interference. If you are having a hard time working on a project or task, distractions are just excuses for you to stop.

The internet, chatting colleagues, phone calls, pop-up email notifications all contribute to putting you off work. Eliminate all distractions for at least 25 minutes and get busy.

How to talk to colleagues

In most work teams, it is impossible not to be distracted. It’s hard to get back on track if the conversation you were interrupted is out of control and you don’t know when it’s over. Therefore, you must immediately set the time frame. The best way to do this is to announce what you are currently doing to the person heading towards you, and then ask targeted questions. Here are some examples:

“I’m just trying to clear my mail. Are you visiting me for a little while or should you make an appointment for another time? "

“I have to make some phone calls. Do you want to discuss something specific or can we talk later? "

“I'm going to a meeting in about five minutes. Can you briefly tell me your problem in half a minute, or is it better if I call you after the meeting? "

The magic word "no"

Why do we agree to lunch with a friend when we are busy with an important project? Taking on additional responsibilities at the request of the boss, despite the fact that we were going to devote more time to the family? We come to the aid of a neighbor, even if it interferes with our plans? It's simple: we are afraid to let people down or ruin relationships.

But we forget that we have a choice. You should not turn your own life into chaos, endlessly solving other people's problems. Say no and people will start to value your time. And you don't have to regret your pliability every time.

From now on, try to say no to all insignificant and “problematic” requests, and use the free time to complete a more important task. Refuse clearly but politely. “I'm flattered that you thought of me, but I'm afraid the download won't allow” or “I'd really like to, but I'm awfully busy.” These forms of refusal will allow you to maintain a warm relationship with the interlocutor and get rid of unnecessary small tasks that "litter" your day.

Diversity

Doing the same thing day after day can get terribly boring. Tired of monotony, we start to get distracted at every opportunity. To avoid this, design different modes for different days of the week.

This is exactly what Jack Dorsey, the creator of Twitter, does. His every day has a specific theme. Monday is for meetings and company management. Tuesday is dedicated to product development. Wednesday is dedicated to marketing, communications and development, while Thursday is dedicated to communication with developers and partners. Friday is the day of the company and its culture.

This routine helps you stay calm in the midst of chaos. Every day, Dorsey focuses all her efforts on one topic, rather than spraying it over several tasks. His work week always follows these rules, so it is easy for colleagues and partners to adapt to him.

Checking mail

Make a schedule of what time you open your email every day. For most people, the best option, least of all interfering with their workflow, is to check incoming mail four times a day and set aside no more than 15 minutes for each “session”.

1. First thing in the morning. Most people start their work day by checking their email to make sure they haven't missed anything urgent.

2. Before lunch break. Lunch time is a natural pause in your business activity; to make this time more productive, you can check your email.

3. Mid afternoon. This is another natural pause when you need to take a break or are about to leave for a business meeting.

4. End of the working day. If you free up the inbox folder as much as possible before leaving your workplace, then the next morning you will immediately go to viewing new messages.