Train your focus muscle

Making your brain fit for focused work is like training for a marathon. You decide you want to run a marathon, you run a bit every day, the first week or so is not that great, but then you get fitter, it gets easier, and gradually you build the muscles and technique you need.

Similarly, improving your focus takes work, but it is an investment that pays off, especially if you suffer from slack attention muscles.

Here are four proven ways that can help you strengthen you focus muscle;

Play brain training games

15 minutes a day can greatly enhance concentration

Practice peripheral vision

Relax your gaze and look out as far as possible

Give meditation a try

Meditation is in and of itself a focus-training act

Practice mindfulness

Mindfulness can be trained in many ways

From a neuroscience point of view, if you want to become an intense focus machine, you need to train your brain to develop a neural “pattern” of focusing. And this pattern needs to be maintained because it can atrophy from inactivity, just like a physical muscle. In other words, use it or lose it.