Do you find it hard to focus your mind at work?

There are several reasons for this

1) Your mind is frazzled with trying to operate in narrow focus for long periods of time. Narrow focus is when you perform mental tasks which take a lot of concentration : for example driving to work; checking emails and messages; doing detailed work; listening to someone talking. This is exhausting for your brain.

2) You are trying to multi-task and work on too many projects at once. Research has shown that multi-tasking is a fallacy. What happens is that your brain just switches from task to task every few seconds or minutes. This is inefficient use of your brain power and quickly leads to burn-out.

3) Your brain is tired and needs some down time to re-energise. Your brain takes up 80% of your body’s energy, despite being a relatively small organ. If you run out of energy your brain powers down. That’s why you can’t think when you are hungry. More on that later…

4) You are having a mental ‘bluescreen’ due to overload or stress and you need to reset. I have seen this many times with people in high stress jobs. Your brain tries to worry about several things on different levels at once. At some point, the brain just gives up and goes offline for a while. This 3 minute meditation is perfect to reset your brain

5) Your brain is not getting the nutrients it needs to work optimally. Your brain can’t work on poor quality fuel. If you had a high performance car you’d feed it the best fuel and oil you could afford – your brain is no different. Fries and caffeine are poor quality fuel.

6) You may be dehydrated. Its hard to focus when your brain is like a dried up pea. The electrics don’t work..

7) You have a sleep debt so your brain is unable to focus. Sleep is when we repair the brain cells and connections, and put learnings and memories into the right place. You wouldn’t repair a plane while its still in the air. You brain needs to be grounded for 8 hours to complete the maintenance schedule.

8) You don’t build enough relaxation into your day. Concentrating on tasks is a high energy game played in adrenaline ‘fight or flight’ mode. You need to have down time in relaxation mode like reading a book, listening to music, walking in a relaxed state. Hitting the gym is more adrenaline activity, but running can be relaxing if you get into a flow state.

Use these simple Open Focus Exercises in my Focus Your Brain Toolkit to re-energise your brain and renew your focus

 

Focus Your Brain Toolkit
If you would like to use the full  3 Minute Focus Exercise and access the complete range of tools, including the

7 Minute Focus

15 Minute Relaxation (great for lunchtime brain reboot)

20 Min Sleep State

Audiobook and eBook ‘Boost Your Brain for Better Business’ includes the right nutrition backed by research

Optimize your potential with
Prof Dr Shirley MD
Nutritional Doctor, Author, Mental Health and Addiction Expert

CEO of the International Association of Health and Nutrition Coaches and The Food Coach Institute

Prof Dr Shirley Mcilvenny
MBBCh, MD, FRCGP(UK), FRACGP