In addition to the time-based technique, there are also mind-based techniques to improve your focus. These can be used before and during learning.
One thing that can distract us the most are our own thoughts.
Vague thoughts seem to wait until we want to focus. And then, they start bubbling up. You want to focus but you start thinking about cleaning the kitchen. Or you remember problems in a project you are working on. Or you randomly start thinking about past events or your future and get completely lost in thoughts.
Ignoring these thoughts doesn’t work. They will bubble up again. They might even come back with a higher intensity.
So instead of ignoring these vague thoughts, dump them. Keep a notepad on your side - analogue or digital - and write your vague thoughts down. Vague thoughts, vague ideas, vague tasks. Whatever tries to break your focus. Write them down and deal with them later.
Curiosity can be a great source for our focus. And, there are multiple ways to trigger your curiosity.
One option is defining why you want to learn. Defining reasons will create more attraction within you towards the topic and allow you to focus. As one of Jay Shetty’s quotes goes: “The opposite of distraction is not focus but attraction.”
You can also trigger your curiosity before starting to learn by writing down or thinking about questions you have related to the topic. If you find a question, it will be difficult for your brain to ignore it. It wants to find the answer.
Lastly, if you find it difficult to define why you want to learn or find it difficult to find questions, try priming. Priming is basically skimming your materials and taking rough notes. Nothing too detailed. Nothing too fancy. You don’t have to understand everything in detail. Just simply engaging a bit with the materials. This kind of priming will trigger questions which in turn will trigger your curiosity. We will go into more detail regarding priming in the learning section of LeLe.
This is a technique I learned from the Hubermann Podcast. “Our mental focus follows our visual focus.” It might sound weird but it somehow works, at least for me.
If you feel like getting distracted and losing focus, try to focus your vision on one particular area. Ideally onto an area that is important right now and not your phone. Try to focus on the sentence you want to understand. Try to focus on the messy notes you want to clean up. If you focus visually, you will pay more attention. The increased attention will get rid of distractions and refine your focus not only visually but also mentally.
Just start simple. Don’t make it too complicated from the beginning. Don’t put pressure on yourself. Don’t have too many expectations. Just start. Have a small enough goal like reading one sentence, committing to just learning for a minute, or revisiting your last note or mind map.
Just starting with a low enough bar will help you overcome low motivation and energy. At the same time, it will also help you trigger your curiosity. Thus, if you start small, your mind gets captivated and you want to focus and learn more. One minute or one small task becomes one hour or a whole learning topic.
