3 reasons for lack of concentration and what to do about it

It is a known phenomenon that lack of concentration is affecting our daily life, at any age and any stage of life. It can cause difficulties when starting studies or in the professional world.
Every drugstore has multiple products that promise to help increase our ability to concentrate, so is the Internet full of tips and tricks that promote a remedy:

No wonder why we can no longer be able to concentrate.

Besides, this has now been scientifically proven. Researchers have found that we switch off in front of the screen after 40 seconds and think of something else.

Can you believe this, about 40 seconds! Most office workers still spend most of their 8 hours working in front of the screen.

Quite stressful for the brain. You quickly find yourself in a continuous loop of procrastinating and feeling guilty.

Even message formats have already been adapted to our shortened concentration range.

Instead of long and detailed features, many online magazines and platforms have reduced their text formats: modern readers prefer less content, shorter sentences and fast recording times.

But why is that the case?

Why we can’t concentrate

Do you relate to the following scenario: It is 8 a.m., your working day begins. You got your first coffee in the kitchen, and your to-do list is waiting expectantly on your desk-time to start working.

But no sooner have you set yourself to your first task than a flash of inspiration comes to you: Quickly check out what’s happening in the world about covid19 latest news. Zack, your brain is somewhere else again.

“One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.” -Anthony Robbins

What’s for lunch afterwards? And did you think about preparing everything for the afternoon meeting? Maybe you should start with another task first …

And before you know it, it is already noon, you have practically done nothing and certainly have not worked through the essential points on your to-do list.

Are you familiar with that? Then you are also one of those people who have difficulty concentrating on their work. There can be many reasons for your lack of concentration.

Reason # 1: You are stressed.

Stress has a negative impact on many areas of our life. You have less appetite (or maybe the opposite you become a stress eater), you are easily irritable and have this feeling in the back of your mind that you have forgotten something important.

Being exposed to external or internal stress for a long time also negatively affects your concentration.

If conflicts trigger the pressure, these also have a negative impact on your ability to concentrate and haunt you in the back of your mind.

Reason # 2: Lack of sleep.

Sleep is vital for your general well-being. Incidentally, it is not true that each of us needs around 8 hours of sleep.

How much is enough sleep depends on your bio-rhythm and your habits?

Still, too little sleep or irregular bedtime can negatively affect your concentration.

Know this: if you are tired, it dramatically affects your ability to concentrate.

A study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine shows a direct correlation between sleep deprivation and impaired cognitive function — including your working memory and your cognitive speed.

Another negative aspect?

Your vigilance and your decision-making ability are also on the decline.

This means that to improve concentration, you need to get enough rest.

Instead of staying late, try to get in the habit of going to sleep and wake up at the same time each time. You will notice enormous improvements in your ability to concentrate in no time.

Reason # 3: You have developed some bad eating habits.

Irregular meals and an unbalanced diet also cause you to be unable to concentrate and digress. Bad eating habits have many faces:

Do you wait too long between meals and sit hungry at your desk?

Does your blood sugar level drop to zero during the day?

Or does a heavy meal make you sluggish and sleepy?

In any case, unbalanced eating habits harm your ability to concentrate. Better eat regularly and whenever possible at the same time so that your body can get used to when it can expect new calories.

Should you feel cravings between meals, nuts and fruit are tasty power snacks.

If you want to be productive in the afternoon, do not lack concentration and avoid intellectual fatigue, it is better to opt for a balanced meal during lunch.

Reason # 4: You spend too much time on the screen.

Scientists are now seeing a possible explanation for our shrinking concentration in the fact that we spend far too much time in front of the screen. And that doesn’t just mean our computer.

If you work in an office at your desktop, you spend most of your 8 hours workday working in front of a screen. But for the majority of us, the day starts right after we wake up by looking at our phone.

Turn off the alarm clock, check your Facebook page for a moment and like a few pictures on Instagram. Before you know it, you already spent the first 15 minutes of a new day on the cell phone.

Very few of us read their news in the newspaper, they are read on the tablet or smartphone. And before you know it, you have spent the entire day in front of various screens.

The real reason for your lack of focus is different than you might think. Your brain is simply overwhelmed. In a minute, you scroll through a lot of information that the brain tries to download, process and store.

Your brain recording capacity is used up in no time; your internal hard disk is overloaded and jumps to something new.

Lack of concentration in a digital news world

Maybe you already know, you scroll through your Facebook feed, and your brain caught a video that you don’t care about.

Still, in your habits out of curiosity, you take a look at the first few seconds before you find out that it’s damn annoying. This phenomenon is called Novelty Bias.

“To be able to concentrate for a considerable time is essential to difficult achievement.” -Bertrand Russell

Our brain releases dopamine when it absorbs new information. Even if we are not interested in the news, it gets a dopamine hit and feels satisfied in the short term.

This phenomenon, for example, makes use of providers like Facebook who want to guide you to scroll endlessly and continually chase the next dopamine hit.

Lack of concentration — Your solution recipe

Of course, you can’t get rid of the work screen that easily. But the chances are that it’s not your main distraction anyway.

The biggest disruptor of your concentration is the digital device that you always carry with your smartphone.

While we check our emails or take a quick look at our Facebook page in the middle of a conversation, we are not only not present for the other person, but we are also distracted.

Our brains are flooded with stimuli, although we should be concentrating on something completely different.

At the same time, our brain continually receives a flood of information that gives it no opportunity to think long and deeply without disturbances.

Let alone develop your ideas or concentrate on a task for a long time.

Improving one’s concentration is, above all, a question of practice.

Our character is shaped by the habits that govern our lives. Every practice needs time to settle in.

Concentration is a daily challenge that we have to face to make it part of our character.

Go slowly, take it one step at a time, and gradually you will start to improve your concentration until the day it becomes part of your character.

Without practice and training, no progress is possible.

Do you not believe me? Then I ask you to do an experiment for the next 30 days and radically reduce your cellphone screen time.

Originally published at https://www.thebrilliance.org on April 12, 2020.