How to stay more focused

In this day and age, our attention span is decreasing by the minute. Instagram reels and TikTok videos are not only a distraction, but a means of decreasing our attention span. Oh and who has the patience to watch a 5 second YouTube Ad anymore? We're either repeatedly pressing the 'skip ad' button, or we're taking the easy way out and subscribing to premium.

If you want to improve your time management, productivity and focus, it's a no-brainer that you need to work on improving your attention span. To stay focused on whatever task is at hand, you need to make sure distractions don't derail you from your goals. Because if it does, you can easily lose sight of your goals, and probably lose yourself throughout the process.

We're dominated by all these external distractions that we're losing focus on our ability to look inwards. And that's when stress, anxiety, depression and other emotions start to kick in.

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So, how do you do that? Introducing meditation.

Some studies suggest meditation to be an excellent tool to calm a wandering mind and help you maintain focus and attention. In fact, just a few minutes every day can make a huge difference.

What is meditation? It’s a broad term for a wide range of relaxation and mindful practices. Here are some ways you can practice meditation:

- Sitting in silence with your eyes closed while you focus on your breathing
- Using guided meditation apps like Calm, Headspace and Insight Timer
- Being alone and doing nothing. No phone, no laptop, no tv. Simply be with yourself, and sit in silence while you self-reflect (even if for 10 minutes in the day)
- Be out in nature (or simply take a walk without your phone) and just observe and absorb everything around you

So, how does meditation work? It supports your focus and attention in 3 areas:

1. You'd better be able to focus on your task, even if there is distraction around you
2. Disassociating from distraction
3. Easily bringing your attention back to the point of focus

Your mind can be a foggy window, and meditation can be the tool to help you clean the window to make it look clear. Like with developing proper eating habits, or learning any new skill for that matter, start slow and gradually progress. Even if you start with 1-2 minutes per day of meditation, that's fine. Eventually, increase it up to 10 minutes per day as you get better and better.