The Pomodoro Technique helps train you to focus on completing one specific thing for very reasonable chunks of time, just 25 minutes or start with less time at first , and rewards you with a break that you must take in order to come back to another minute focus stretch refreshed. It may sound obvious, but a planner or even a handy organizational phone app or calendar can be key to helping you stay focused, especially if you have a lot on your plate or to-do list.

Fuel your brain and body with bites and sips that support balanced energy and mental clarity. As often as you can, choose unrefined, healthy carbohydrates whole grains, oats, legumes, potatoes, bananas , lots of protein , and fiber-packed fruits and veggies.

This combo of nutrients will help give you sustained energy, reduce blood sugar spikes and subsequent crashes that make you foggy, fatigued, and unfocused , and feed and fortify your gut microbiome.

Steep yourself a cup of green or black tea, which not only has caffeine for a perk-up, but also contains L-theanine, an amino acid that's been shown to help boost concentration and attention. Although energy from a bit of sugar is important for optimal brain function , too much sugar—often consumed via processed foods and drinks with added sugars and sweeteners—can actually wreak havoc on your focus.

The single most important thing you can do for better focus and concentration, Dr. While multitasking can ultimately help you get things done, Dr. Keller AS, Leikauf JE, Holt-Gosselin B, Staveland BR, Williams LM. Paying attention to attention in depression.

Transl Psychiatry. Mancini E, Beglinger C, Drewe J, Zanchi D, Lang UE, Borgwardt S. Green tea effects on cognition, mood and human brain function: a systematic review. Kahathuduwa CN, Dassanayake TL, Amarakoon AMT, Weerasinghe VS.

Acute effects of theanine, caffeine and theanine-caffeine combination on attention. Nutr Neurosci. Mergenthaler P, Lindauer U, Dienel GA, Meisel A. Sugar for the brain: the role of glucose in physiological and pathological brain function.

Trends Neurosci. doi: Use limited data to select advertising. Create profiles for personalised advertising. Use profiles to select personalised advertising. Create profiles to personalise content. Use profiles to select personalised content.

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List of Partners vendors. By Ashley Zlatopolsky. Ashley Zlatopolsky. Ashley Zlatopolsky is a Detroit-based storyteller with more than 10 years of experience writing and editing. Real Simple's Editorial Guidelines. Medically reviewed by Samina Ahmed Jauregui, PsyD.

Samina Ahmed Jauregui is a specialty trained sleep psychologist with expertise in non-pharmaceutical, behavioral treatment of sleep disorders. The ability to concentrate on something in your environment and direct mental effort toward it is critical for learning new things, achieving goals , and performing well across a wide variety of situations.

Whether you are trying to finish a report at work or competing in a marathon, your ability to focus can mean the difference between success and failure.

Fortunately, focus is a lot like a mental muscle. The more you work on building it up, the stronger it gets. Becoming more mentally focused is achievable, but that doesn't mean that it's always quick and easy.

If it was simple, then we would all have the razor-sharp concentration of an elite athlete. It will take some real effort on your part and you may have to make some changes to some of your daily habits. Here are some tips and tricks from psychology that can help you learn how to focus and develop laser-like mental concentration.

Hosted by therapist Amy Morin, LCSW, this episode of The Verywell Mind Podcast shares how to stay motivated and focused even when you don't want to. Click below to listen now. Before you start working toward learning how to focus, you might want to begin by assessing just how strong your mental focus is at the present moment.

If the first set of statements seems more your style, then you probably already have fairly good concentration skills, but you could be even stronger with a little practice.

If you identify more with the second set of statements, then you probably need to work on your mental focus quite a bit.

It might take some time, but practicing some good habits and being mindful of your distractibility can help. While it may sound obvious, people often underestimate just how many distractions prevent them from concentrating on the task at hand.

Such intrusions might come in the form of a radio blaring in the background or perhaps an obnoxious co-worker who constantly drops by your cubicle to chat.

Minimizing these sources of distraction isn't always as easy as it sounds. While it might be as simple as turning off the television or radio, you might find it much more challenging to deal with an interrupting co-worker, spouse, child, or roommate.

One way to deal with this is to set aside a specific time and place and request to be left alone for that period of time. Another alternative is to seek out a calm location where you know you will be able to work undisturbed. The library, a private room in your house, or even a quiet coffee shop might all be good spots to try.

Not all distractions come from outside sources. Exhaustion, worry , anxiety, poor motivation, and other internal disturbances can be particularly difficult to avoid. A few strategies you might want to try to minimize or eliminate such internal distractions are to make sure you are well-rested prior to the task and to use positive thoughts and imagery to fight off anxiety and worry.

If you find your mind wandering toward distracting thoughts, consciously bring your focus back to the task at hand. While multitasking may seem like a great way to get a lot done quickly, it turns out that people are actually rather bad at it. Juggling multiple tasks at once can dramatically cut down on productivity and makes it much harder to hone in on the details that are truly important.

Think of your attention as a spotlight. If you shine that spotlight on one particular area, you can see things very clearly.

If you were to try to spread that same amount of light across a large dark room, you might instead only glimpse the shadowy outlines. Part of knowing how to focus is making the most of the resources you have available.

Stop multitasking and instead give your full attention to one thing at a time. It's tough to stay mentally focused when you are ruminating about the past, worrying about the future, or tuned out of the present moment for some other reason. You have probably heard people talk about the importance of " being present.

This notion of being present is also essential for recapturing your mental focus. Staying engaged in the here and now keeps your attention sharp and your mental resources honed in on the details that really matter at a specific point in time.

It may take some time but work on learning to truly live in the moment. You cannot change the past and the future has not happened yet, but what you do today can help you avoid repeating past mistakes and pave a path for a more successful future. Mindfulness is a hot topic right now, and for good reason.

Despite the fact that people have practiced forms of mindfulness meditation for thousands of years, its many health benefits are only recently starting to be understood.

In one study, researchers had human resources professionals engage in simulations of the sort of complex multitasking they engaged in each day at work. These tasks had to be completed in 20 minutes and included answering phones, scheduling meetings, and writing memos with sources of information pouring in from multiple sources including by phone calls, emails, and text messages.

Some of the participants received 8 weeks of training in the use of mindfulness meditation , and the results found that only those who had received this training showed improvement in concentration and focus.

Members of the meditation group were able to stay on task longer, switched between tasks less frequently, and performed the work more efficiently than the other groups of participants. Practicing mindfulness can involve learning how to meditate, but it can also be as simple as trying a quick and easy deep breathing exercise.

Start by taking several deep breaths while really focusing on each and every breath. When you feel your mind naturally begin to wander, gently and uncritically guide your focus back to your deep breathing.

While this might seem like a deceptively simple task, you may find that it is actually much more difficult than it appears. Fortunately, this breathing activity is something you can do anywhere and anytime. Eventually, you will probably find that it becomes easier to disengage from intrusive thoughts and return your focus to where it belongs.

Have you ever tried to stay mentally focused on the same thing for a long period of time? After a while, your focus starts to break down and it becomes more and more difficult to devote your mental resources to the task.

Not only that, but your performance ultimately suffers as a result. Traditional explanations in psychology have suggested that this is due to attentional resources being depleted, but some researchers believe that it has more to do with the brain's tendency to ignore sources of constant stimulation.

Researchers have found that even taking very brief breaks by shifting your attention elsewhere can dramatically improve mental focus. So the next time you are working on a prolonged task, such as preparing your taxes or studying for an exam, be sure to give yourself an occasional mental break.

Shift your attention to something unrelated to the task at hand, even if it is only for a few moments. These short moments of respite might mean that you are able to keep your mental focus sharp and your performance high when you really need it. Building your mental focus is not something that will happen overnight.

Even professional athletes require plenty of time and practice in order to strengthen their concentration skills. One of the first steps is to recognize the impact that being distracted is having on your life. If you are struggling to accomplish your goals and find yourself getting sidetracked by unimportant details, it is time to start placing a higher value on your time.

By building your mental focus, you will find that you are able to accomplish more and concentrate on the things in life that truly bring you success, joy, and satisfaction. Mental focus refers to your ability to concentrate on relevant information in your environment.

This ability allows you to attend to things that require attention, complete tasks that you need to accomplish, and acquire new information. In order to focus, the brain needs to filter out irrelevant information to concentrate on what really matters.

Different types of attention can affect your ability to focus. Selective attention , for example, acts like a spotlight to highlight specific stimuli in your environment.

Sustained attention, on the other hand, allows you to stay mentally focused on something for an extended period of time.

This can be caused by a number of physiological stressors such as inflammation, injury to blood vessels especially if you have high blood pressure , the buildup of abnormal proteins, and naturally occurring brain shrinkage.

Underlying conditions. Depression or sleep disorders such as sleep apnea can undermine your ability to concentrate. So can the effects of vision or hearing loss.

You waste precious cognitive resources when you spend too much time trying to make out what's written on a page or just hear what someone is saying. Medication side effects. Some drugs, especially anticholinergics such as treatments for incontinence, depression, or allergies , can slow processing speed and your ability to think clearly.

Excessive drinking. Having too much alcohol impairs thinking and causes interrupted sleep, which affects concentration.

Information overload. We are bombarded with information from TVs, computers, and messages such as texts or emails. When there's too much material, it burdens our filtering system and it's easy to get distracted. Want a way to boost your attention and focus? Neuropsychologist Kim Willment of Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital suggests a single-task exercise like reading.

When it goes off, ask yourself if your mind has wandered. If so, just refocus on what you're reading," she says. She recommends sitting still for a few minutes each day, closing your eyes, and focusing on your breathing as well as the sounds and sensations around you.

Cognitive training. Computerized cognitive training games aim to improve your response times and attention. Evidence that this works has been mixed.

So if you reach a certain level of sustained attention, pushing it to the next level can help improve it, and this may translate to everyday life. A healthier lifestyle. Many aspects of a healthy lifestyle can help attention, starting with sleep and exercise. There is a direct link between exercise and cognitive ability, especially attention.

When you exercise, you increase the availability of brain chemicals that promote new brain connections, reduce stress, and improve sleep. And when we sleep, we reduce stress hormones that can be harmful to the brain, and we clear out proteins that injure it.

Aim for seven to eight hours of sleep each night, and minutes per week of aerobic exercise, such as brisk walking. Other healthy steps to improve focus: eat a Mediterranean-style diet, which has been shown to support brain health; treat underlying conditions; and change medications that may be affecting your ability to focus.

Getting older is out of your control, but healthier living is something you determine, and it may improve concentration. As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of last review or update on all articles.

No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician. Thanks for visiting.

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In a sample of Stanford students, about half identified themselves as media multitaskers. The other half did not. The test examined attention spans, memory capacity, and ability to switch from one task to the next — and the multitaskers performed more poorly on each test. Everything distracts them," Clifford Nass, who was a researcher for the study, said in a Stanford press release.

If the saying "practice makes perfect" is true, then meditation is a sure way to enhance focus because it takes a great deal of concentration. Scientific experiments agree. One study at the University of North Carolina, for example, revealed that students who meditated for just 20 minutes a day for four days performed better on certain cognitive tests.

Another study found that people who meditated regularly were less likely to engage in "mind-wandering" and were generally happier.

The researchers of the study suggest that this was because long-term meditators exhibited a lower amount of what's called default mode network activity DMN — a function of the brain linked with attention issues, anxiety, and depression.

Exercises like running , swimming , and weight lifting aren't just good for the body. They promote brain health, too, which is important for memory capacity and concentration, according to John Ratey, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

In particular, scientists think regular exercise may help stimulate the release of a chemical called brain-derived neurotrophic factor , which some research suggests helps rewire memory circuits to improve their functioning.

To-do lists not only help you prioritize what tasks you need to get done first, but they can also serve as a record of the loose ends. Moreover, incomplete work could eat away at your concentration. This stems from something called the Zeigarnik Effect , which is the tendency to remember incomplete tasks instead of completed ones.

Researchers explored this Zeigarnik effect in a study which found that participants who could plan their work and complete tasks one by one were more likely to stay focused than those participants who were made to go from task to task without completing them.

If you're feeling groggy, grab a cup of joe or other caffeinated substance. Studies suggest that caffeine may, in moderate doses , help to boost focus — particularly in those of us who are fatigued.

But don't get overzealous with the coffee , or you might get the caffeine jitters , which typically reduce your ability to concentrate. You can also try a cup of tea , which won't give you the quick buzz like coffee but can provide you energy for a longer period thanks to the L-theanine chemicals in it that our bodies metabolize throughout the day.

You might have heard that watching cat videos on YouTube can improve productivity. Well, that's true sort of. Whether it's watching cat videos, taking a walk , or a brief nap , it is critical to take the occasional break from work.

In one study , 84 subjects were asked to perform a simple computer task for one hour. Those who were allowed two brief breaks during that hour performed consistently for the entire time whereas those who weren't offered a break performed worse over time.

Another widely-noted study analyzed the decision making process of 1, judges and found that more "favorable rulings" were made by judges during the beginning of the day and after they took periodic food breaks.

Essentially, this study explored how "decision fatigue" i. how fast and accurately we make decisions was alleviated by semi-frequent breaks. The right background music is ultimately what works for you. Some experts argue that no music is best for productivity because it minimizes the opportunity for distractions.

Whereas other studies have found that listening to background music without words offers better performance compared to white noise or silence.

And still another study found that the time spent on a certain task was longest when listening to no music. All that is to say, the type of music you listen to and the type of work you're doing at the time matters.

So be conscious of your productivity and choose what music is right for you. Your brain is a mental muscle, and some studies have found that people who are easily distracted will benefit from "brain training" exercises, like those promoted by Lumosity or Cogmed.

But which exercises work — and for how well or long their effects last — is unclear. Therefore, the purported benefits of brain training need further examination, Susanne Jaeggi — who studies the brain and memory at the University of California — told New Scientist.

The pomodoro method is a time-blocking technique that can help compartmentalize your tasks into manageable minute intervals. To use the pomodoro method work for 25 minutes, taking five minute breaks in between 25 minute intervals.

After four of these intervals, you can take a longer minute break. This method of time blocking gives you the needed break in between work sessions to help you maintain focus longer and more sustainably.

Ambient noise, like cars honking or kids screaming, can stimulate the release of the stress hormone cortisol, Mark A. Andrews, former director of the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine at Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania, told Scientific American.

Too much cortisol can impair function and hinder focus. And, unfortunately, the more we're exposed to ambient noise, the worse our bodies respond, according to Andrews. Many of us spend most of our waking hours staring at a digital screen, which can strain our eyes and actually make it more difficult to focus on, and therefore process, what we're looking at.

To refocus the eyes, just stare at a distant object for a few minutes. One doctor suggested the " rule" to a journalist at LifeHacker. It goes like this: Every 20 minutes, take 20 seconds to stare at an object at least 20 feet away.

The idea behind the rule is that the eye is a muscle and like all muscles it benefits from exercise. Just like how sitting in one spot for a long time can make your muscles feel achy and stiff, staring at one object does essentially the same to your eyes.

If you don't periodically refocus, your vision can become a little blurry or fuzzy after work. Blue light glasses, which filter out the blue light that screens emit , have become popular to help screen-exhaustion.

However, they won't help with eye strain, but could potentially help your quality of sleep. One of the main symptoms of chronic sleep loss is poor concentration. Getting a solid seven to eight hours ahead of a busy work day could be the difference between being frazzled and being laser-focused.

If you can disconnect from the internet, there are fewer things to distract you from the work at hand. Experts think that every time you flip between tasks — whether it be responding to a friend on Facebook or checking your inbox — a little bit of your attention remains with the task you just left.

Sophie Leroy, a professor at the University of Washington at Bothell, coined the term " attention residue " as the reason for why it's so hard to change tasks. Eliminating those online distractions can keep you from finding tasks to flip between and help you focus.