Do you lose focus when you need it most? Do you find it hard to concentrate on the easiest tasks? Do you catch yourself dropping one thing and starting a new one at the same time? It’s actually pretty common.
Trouble focusing isn’t always the result of an underlying condition, although it is necessary to do your research and consider all possibilities. Of course, that’s why you’re here.
So stick around and I’ll give you some tips to help you stay focused and increase your attention span so you can be as successful as possible.
1. You Might Need More Sleep
Sleep is imperative for healthy brain and bodily functions as well as your mental health. If you don’t get the recommended amount of sleep, you increase your chances of having other problems.
How much sleep you need is different from person to person, but you should be getting between 7-9 hours every night.
It’s difficult to maintain a good sleep routine, especially if you’re thinking about issues, problems, having difficulty making progress on something, or having anxiety about anything.
According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, issues like allergies, heartburn, and depression or anxiety can keep you up at night and affect your ability to get enough sleep.
Other issues are the result of living in a profound digital age, where life revolves around some type of screen.
This can easily cause distractions and the inability to get a good night’s rest. The effects of a lack of good sleep include difficulty with concentration, becoming distracted easily, and the inability to maintain focus.
Napoleon Hill, the great success philosopher known for his work in “The Law of Success” and “Think and Grow Rich,” insisted that a positive mental attitude (PMA) is an essential element of success. If a successful person doesn’t get the appropriate rest, their success suffers. He called this “recharging your battery.”
Hill also explained that negative emotions can drastically drain our energy levels and cause us to lose sleep. Successful people need sleep because successful people need to concentrate!
2. You Might Be Dehydrated
Did you know that dehydration can cause difficulty sleeping? Dehydration can cause many serious health issues, and insomnia is just one of the side effects.
Not getting enough water is one thing, but electrolytes is another thing. Water alone doesn’t give you the complete benefits you need for hydration.
Try some fruits that are rich in potassium (like bananas), or are water-based, such as watermelon or cucumbers, to help with replenishing.
Did you know that stress increases your adrenaline and can actually dehydrate you as if you were working out?
Take steps to reduce stress and identify its root cause to break the cycle and prevent it from happening in the future. No one needs to deal with stress, but unfortunately, it’s a part of our lives.
If you are going through a stressful situation at work or facing another challenge in life, this could seriously contribute to the reason you lose focus and ultimately causing your stress to increase and hydration to decrease.
Stress can cause your heartbeat to increase, adrenaline rushes, and rapid breathing, which all contribute to dehydration and then make it hard to concentrate.
Not to mention, increased tasks and responsibilities at work or at home may cause you to forget to hydrate properly.
You might even try to keep yourself awake with an energy drink, many of which may actually have diuretic properties.
Dehydration is not something to discount, so get medical advice and/or treatment if you suspect you are chronically or seriously dehydrated. If it is affecting your sleep, see a doctor.
Rehydrating requires both fluid and electrolytes. Many people make the mistake of just drinking water, but this isn’t enough. You need both sodium and potassium to replenish the lost nutrients and fluids.
3. You Might Need Better Nutrition
High sugar content in food and drink, too many carbs, too much or too little food, and improper nutrients and vitamins are all part of an unhealthy diet.
But how does that affect your sleep? The research is lengthy and even the great philosophers understood the importance of getting your essential nutrients and maintaining a balanced diet.
Napoleon Hill also insisted that success is dependent on good nutrition. Hill referenced the dangers of “auto-intoxication” to the body and how diet affects judgment and decision-making. This also makes it hard to concentrate.
According to Hill, alcohol intoxication affects our subconscious mind and therefore, our conscious thoughts. We can’t see the effects or know it’s happening, but we will see it over time affect our success.
Drinking too much alcohol or really doing too much of anything affects our ability to be disciplined and in control. This isn’t characteristic of a successful person anyway, so take care of your physical self and control your eating and drinking habits.
If you’re eating a lot of fatty foods or drinking sugary drinks, these may be affecting your focus.
Research has shown that your nutrition affects both your mood and your ability to focus and may also cause neuroinflammation, a condition that can affect your brain functions.
Something else to consider is vitamin D. I learned I was vitamin D deficient, and it significantly affected my mood. Ask your doctor to help you determine if you are low or deficient in any nutrients, which may be contributing to sluggishness, anxiety, or even depression.
If you want to be successful and increase your attention span, cut the alcohol and poor nutritional habits that prevent you from performing at your best.
4. You Might be Overworked or Overwhelmed
Have you ever heard the term scatterbrained? It’s a real thing. The symptoms of this include disorganization and lacking concentration and focus.
You might just be too busy. Maybe you need to take a step back and reassess what you have on your plate.
You might not have enough time to focus on any one task long enough before a new task is needing your attention.
Consider your usual tasks, any tasks you are working on, and anything you have planned. Assess the focus each task requires and determine whether or not you’ll truly be able to give them the focus they need.
Taking the necessary time to process ideas, tend to your tasks, and respond to new ones takes a toll on your focus and really makes it hard to concentrate.
You’ll have a harder time trying to keep your concentration, engage in critical thinking, and truly be mentally present the more you take on.
The first step to take is to recognize what you actually have the ability to focus on, what you can change, and what are needless distractions.
5. Too Many Technological Distractions
While technology provides unprecedented convenience, it can also cause us to become easily distracted on unimportant things.
We get distracted by the phone, computer, alert sounds, videos, TV, you name it. It’s everywhere and hard to turn off, both physically and mentally.
The ability to be in the moment can be difficult when someone or something is able to break your concentration in some way technologically.
There are distractions everywhere, normally meant to be helpful, but also meant to be disruptive. These systems are designed to get and keep your focus, taking away from your ability to concentrate on any one task.
Life before these distractions may have been better for our concentration, but not necessarily for our anxiety when we couldn’t get a hold of someone or find an answer at the push of a button.
If technology is making it hard to concentrate, reduce your dependency on it and allow your brain to think a little more on its own.
6. You Might Need More Physical Activity
Did you know that your level of physical activity can affect your focus? Your brain needs exercise too and keeping the blood flowing throughout your body and especially to your brain allows you to enhance focus.
Not to mention, exercise is imperative for good overall physical fitness. But what about your brain and cognitive functioning?
When you lose focus often and find it hard to concentrate when you need to, these can be symptoms of a lack of proper physical activity.
If you aren’t exercising enough, you may not be able to concentrate on a simple task or focus on something for a short time frame.
There is strong scientific evidence suggesting that physical activity helps to prevent cognitive decline. That means if you are experiencing symptoms now such as a lack of focus and sometimes aren’t able to concentrate, you may need to step it up with physical exercise to prevent the decline that later in life could contribute to cognitive impairment.
Physical activity can allow your brain to stay focused on tasks, engage in a healthier lifestyle, and lead to reduced problems with your focus.
I highly recommend even just a brisk walk to get your blood flowing. Rowing machines or some floor exercises will work too.
There is also evidence that increased physical activity and better fitness can positively affect your overall mental health and decrease symptoms of depression.
While depression can affect your desire for physical activity, there are activities you can practice to help you get to a place where you are ready for that.
Focus on your mental health and overall wellbeing and consider meditation techniques to improve your mental health and increase your attention span.
Having doubts or worry about stressors can cause you to lose focus and affect your ability to engage in physical activity, having a counterproductive effect on cognitive functioning.
While meditation has been around for centuries, mindfulness medication has become a popular technique to reduce stress levels and in turn improve your physical health.
Take some time to practice mindfulness meditation and be truly mindful of any worry or stress that is preventing you from wanting to exercise.
