How to improve Concentrate

Meaning and Definition of Concentration:

According to Moran (2004) “concentration refers to a person’s ability to exert deliberate mental effort on what is most important in any given situation”. Concentration also known as sustainable attention can also be defined as a person’s ability to focus on a thing for a prolonged interval of time. During this time a person’s focus is only on a particular task and the focus remains on that task until the task is either completed or some amount of time has elapsed. Here the person’s focus is only on one thing ignoring all the other stimuli that are present in the environment.

Parts of Concentration:

• Focusing on the most important clues of the environment.
• Maintaining attention and focusing on that clue over time.
• Being aware of the situation. 

Factors concerned with one’s concentration:

1. Width of concentration

• Broad: When a person’s focus is on more than one cue that is present in the environment.
• Narrow: When a person focuses only on one cue present in the environment.

2. Direction of concentration

• Internal: This includes when a person focuses on his/her own inner thoughts and feelings.
• External: This includes when a person focuses on the events and objects that are present outside the environment.

Now concentration can take the form of broad external or broad external or narrow external or narrow internal.

Benefits of having a better concentration:

• Ability to understand things more clearly what you have read.
• Being concentrated during lectures, and seminars help to understand things more clearly which on the other hand helps in better running notes preparation.
• Increases self-esteem.
• Increases confidence.
• Good concentration leads to better memory.
• Helps to be away from disturbing, negative, and annoying thoughts.
• Helps in fetching marks during exams.
• Helps in better retention.
• Increases will power.
• Control over one’s thoughts.
• Ability to make right and meaningful decisions.
• Ability to choose the right thoughts.
• Increases inner happiness and satisfaction.
• Helps in better visualization.
• Increases energy level.
• Helps in completing tasks on time.
• Reduces internal distractions. 

Ways of improving concentration:

• Being physically active and doing physical exercises on a regular basis.
• Getting enough sleep on a daily basis.
• Doing Yoga.
• Doing meditation.
• Take notes while reading.
• Focusing on one task at a time.
• Setting a timetable that is feasible to conquer and then doing tasks according to it.
• Eliminate or remove the outside distractions.
• Try techniques like the Pomodoro technique (25 minutes doing work then 5 minutes break and then continue the same cycle).
• Having a balanced diet throughout the day without skipping meals a single time.
• Doing mental exercises.
• Doing the work that requires much concentration at the time when you are most active.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can state that being concentrated is very important as it helps us to have a better understanding of things and also have a clear mindset. It allows us to eliminate the things that are not important and be focused on the things that actually matter. And each person differs in the degree of concentration; some people are more concentrated while some are less. However, as like other skills the art of being concentrated can be learned and practiced in daily life and there are various ways like yoga, exercise, etc; for doing the same.