On Concentration
Why some people can work on multiple tasks simultaneously, and others not? Why good employers give their workers private rooms? Why is it essential to organize your work correctly? Find the answers to these questions below.
Concentration in a Nutshell
A concentration (or attentional control) is the ability to focus on one thing and ignore others. It also affects the amount of information a person can and need to keep in mind. That is why the ability to concentrate is an essential skill for all types of intellectual labor.
The visible areas where concentration is a must are learning and science. When a person learns something new, he/she always has to focus on the information, process it in mind, and remember for the future. The science needs a lot of concentration to keep in mind theoretical and practical experience to be able to invent something new.
However, concentration in big doses can be harmful. Constant concentration on one topic can lead to mental disorders, and people with such issues may require the help of a psychiatrist. Regular switching between the different items (during the context switching or multitasking) is a common thing, but doing it for a long time may lead to stress and health issues.
The Best and The Worst Practices
There are several pieces of advice to persons who use concentration a lot. The first — eliminate all the factors that may prevent you from being focused. You may turn off the music, disable all the notifications, and work in a quiet private room. The second — structure all the information you have and keep it like that. It helps to reduce the time needed to find what you need and keep things in order. The third — split your task into smaller sub-tasks and do them one by one. This approach reduces the amount of needed information, and so there are fewer things that require your attention at every step.
On the opposite, there are multiple things you should not do to do not lose your concentration. The first — multitasking or often switch between the tasks. This approach leads to lower performance, and a person becomes tired sooner. The second — you are trying to concentrate when you are tired. It does not have any sense, even vice versa — you may become even more tired and stressful. The third — concentrate hard when the current task does not require that. Every time you are starting a task, ask yourself — how hard do you need to concentrate on doing it? If you can make it with less effort and lower level of concentration — do it!
Less Stress, Better Rest
The concentration has quite an unusual relation to stress. The more person concentrates, the sooner he/she became stressful, and the higher the level of stress, the harder it is to concentrate. So here we have a loop that reduces the effect of concentration and raises pressure with each iteration. But how to break it?
The first approach was already mention above — do not concentrate when you do not need it. By doing that, you can focus only on the most important or crucial things, but at the same time, do not stress when you are working on something more straightforward. This alternation will keep your stress at a low level.
The second approach can be useful when you indeed need to concentrate for a long time. The trick is simple — you have to take a break regularly (usually 10 minutes for every hour) and completely relax during this break. "Completely" means no music, no messengers, no communication, and nothing else that may bring you out of this state. The hard part here is to completely relax and turn off your brain right after you concentrated on some tasks. If you manage to do that, then your mind can rest, and you can return to concentrated work after the break. You still will be tired after several hours of such iterations, but the level of stress will be significantly lower in comparing to the non-break approach.
These simple tips and tricks can help you to work efficiently for an extended period keeping the stress under control at the same time. And do not forget that the proper rest is one of the basic human needs, so you always have to relax after concentrated hard work.