Information overload is so common these days. How do we stay on track?
Gauge your mental focus
First, we must assess our minds and check if we need to improve our focus [1].
Your focus is on a suitable level if:
- You find it easy to remain alert.
- You establish plans and split tasks up into smaller parts.
- You take brief breaks, then get back to work.
Your focus needs more work if:
- You daydream regularly.
- You find it challenging to tune out distractions.
- You lose track of your own progress.
If the first set of statements appears more your style, you likely already have relatively adequate concentration skills, but you could be even better with a bit of practice. If you associate more with the second set of statements, you probably need to work on your mental focus quite a bit more. It might take some time, but practising good routines and being conscious of your distractibility can help.
Ways towards deeper focus and higher concentration
Here are some tips on improving your concentration and heightening your focus:
- Get some green time: a dose of nature could do wonders when attempting to enhance your attention span and capacity to concentrate [2]. Research suggests that exposure to natural surroundings (counting in green spaces) may benefit children’s brain development [3].
Though, augmented concentration from green exposure does not stop during childhood. Studies demonstrated that glancing at greenery can raise concentration levels and productivity in college and the workplace [4].
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Another study showed that supplementing a bare area or workspace with plants increased workers’ productivity by 15% [5]. The presence of greenery enriched workplace happiness, perceived air quality and reported levels of concentration.
- Eliminate distractions and limit your focus: it may sound obvious, but people frequently underestimate just how many distractions stop them from concentrating on accomplishing tasks. Such intrusions might appear in the form of a loud sound like a blaring radio in the background or maybe an obnoxious co-worker who regularly drops by your area to chat.
Although, minimising these sources of distraction isn’t always as easy as it sounds. While it might be as uncomplicated as turning off an appliance, you might find it much more problematic to deal with an interrupting co-worker, room mate, child or spouse.
One way to address this is to reserve a specific place and time and request to be left alone. Another option is to seek out a quiet location where you know you will be able to work undisturbed. The library, a private room in your home, or even a peaceful coffee shop might all be good locations to try.
What’s more, multitasking may seem like an excellent way to get a lot done fast, it turns out that individuals are rather bad at it. Juggling numerous tasks at once can dramatically cut productivity and make it much harder to hone in on the crucial details.
Part of improving your mental focus is about creating the most of the resources you have available. Avoid multitasking and give full attention to one thing at a time.
- Practise mindfulness: mindfulness is a hot subject right now, and for a good reason. Although people have practised mindfulness meditation for thousands of years, its many health benefits are only recently beginning to be understood [6].
In one study, researchers monitored professionals from a human resources department. They were asked to simulate the complex multitasking they engaged in daily at work. These tasks had to finish in 20 minutes. They included answering phones, scheduling meetings and writing memos with sources of information from multiple sources (text messages, phone calls and emails).
Some of the participants received eight weeks of training in using mindfulness meditation, and the results found that only those who had this training demonstrated improvement in engagement and focus. Members of the meditation group could stay on task longer, switch between tasks less frequently, and complete the work more efficiently than the other groups of participants.
Practising mindfulness can affect understanding how to meditate, but it can also be as uncomplicated as going for a quick and easy deep breathing exercise.
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- Try brain training: brain training methods, problem-solving exercises and even games could all have a positive, adverse effect, or no effect at all on concentration, depending on which study you look into.
Recent research has demonstrated that people who frequently do word puzzles, like crosswords, have better brain function later in life [7].
Researchers found direct connections between how often people used word puzzles and the accuracy and speed of performance on tasks assessing attention, memory and reasoning.
Playing video games has been shown to bring about shifts in many brain regions. Researchers discovered that video game use changed the brain regions accountable for visuospatial skills and attention and made them work more efficiently [8].
- Enhance your well-being: weight, dietary choices and physical activity all contribute to how well you function and your concentration levels. Eating concentration-boosting foods, looking after your well-being and staying active can improve focus.
Concentration-enhancing foods include:
- Avocados: eating one avocado a day may help improve cognitive function due to increased lutein levels in the eye and brain. Researchers uncovered that eating an avocado daily enhanced measures of cognitive skills, including attention, memory and processing speed [8].
- Chocolate: or particularly the cocoa bean, is rich in flavanols, compounds that have neuroprotective effects. Cocoa flavanols may help improve cognitive processing speed, working memory, and attention when ingested within a period of five days to three months [9].
- Walnuts: may improve test performance for cognitive function, including those evaluating speed, memory, concentration and information processing [10].
In the exercise aspect, research found that individuals who practice sports can perform better on cognitive tasks than those with poor physical health [11]. Compared with a more sedentary lifestyle group, the group in good physical condition did better on duties testing sustained attention. Practising yoga may also significantly improve energy levels and brain function [12].
Likewise, don’t forget regular appointments with your doctor. We always hear ‘prevention is better than cure’ – and as we age, we might need to be more consistent in checking our health levels.
In your medical evaluations, your doctor might advise dietary changes, supplementing or eating more foods rich in what you require or lack. As for your brain and improving concentration, this bodily process utilises high energy requirement tissue and relies on mitochondrial or cellular health [13].
Mitochondria control energy production is often referred to as the ‘cell’s powerhouse’. Some vitamins are naturally associated with brain health, but reviewing your vitamin levels and consulting your doctor before trying anything out is important.
Improve mitochondrial health and cellular energy
Can’t decide yet on which supplement to take? You can start with the goal of ensuring support for your body’s cellular energy production system or the electron transport chain.
Why is there a necessity for this? Energy production and counteracting harmful free radicals can become less efficient as we get older.
Introducing MitoQ, which was established in 1990 at the University of Otago in New Zealand when biochemist Robin Smith and Mitochondrial specialist Professor Mike Murphy analysed mitochondria and tried to deduce why antioxidant supplements, like CoQ10, were less productive than expected at supporting health. They learned that regular antioxidants could not penetrate the mitochondria even after successfully entering the bloodstream.
Thus, they created a multi-patented cellular optimiser Mitoquinol Mesylate. It can enter mitochondria and manage free radicals and oxidative damage while providing additive benefits.
The product was developed as the world’s first mitochondria-targeted antioxidant to empower individuals’ health and ambitions. MitoQ is uniquely developed to handle cell stress, letting you unlock more energy, improve your focus and provide faster recovery and healthier aging.
MitoQ’s breakthrough formula is scientifically proven to boost mitochondria’s ability to combat cell stress and balance free radicals. Longevity.Technology readers can benefit from 20% off MitoQ – simply use the discount code LT20 at checkout.
Is there any medical proof for MitoQ?
MitoQ has been proven in more than 650 independent, reviewed papers to provide benefits to organ health, oxidative stress and more. It has substantiated inspiring preclinical impacts in different studies in isolated mitochondria, tissues and cells experiencing apoptotic death and oxidative stress. Over 650 positive peer-reviewed in vitro and pre-clinical covering many therapeutic areas have recently been published.
MitoQ has been in 14 clinical trials. One showed that MitoQ improved arterial dilation in healthy adults by 42%, signifying that it bears promise for treating age-related vascular health.
Currently, MitoQ is being studied in a further 40 clinical trials as part of an extended research programme.
Can it help with longevity?
Mitochondria are metabolically active organelles that build reactive oxygen species (ROS). It has been speculated that ROS-mediated damage to DNA accumulates over time and leads to associated aging phenotypes. One way to extend longevity and delay aging is to lower ROS-induced damage or improve DNA repair [14].
A systematic study to evaluate the effects of MitoQ on oxidative outcomes connected to the aging process rendered a statistically considerable drop in nitrotyrosine concentration (a product of tyrosine nitration mediated by ROS) and raised membrane possibility. It indicates that MitoQ may be of some benefit in relieving oxidative stress connected to aging [15].
Improving your mental focus is possible, but that doesn’t mean it’s always quick and easy. It will take effort and consistency, and you may have to modify some of your daily habits and practices.
The information included in this article is for informational purposes only. The purpose of this webpage is to promote broad consumer understanding and knowledge of various health topics. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen, and never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
[1] https://www.verywellmind.com/things-you-can-do-to-improve-your-mental-focus-4115389
[2] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320165#1.-Get-regular-green-time
[3] https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/EHP694/
[4] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494415000328
[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25068481
[6] https://www.verywellmind.com/mindfulness-the-health-and-stress-relief-benefits-3145189
[7] http://www.alzheimersanddementia.com/article/S1552-5260(17)31473-5/fulltext
[8] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00248/full
[9] http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/9/9/919
[10] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2017.00019/full
[11] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12603-014-0569-2
[12] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/286745.php
[13] https://bit.ly/3PDb187
[14] https://agmr.hapres.com/htmls/AGMR_1313_Detail.html
[15 ] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30116495/
