How Can You Improve Your Ability to Focus?

There’s a line in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace where the Jedi Mentor Qui Gon Jin (Liam Neeson) tells Obi Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) that your focus determines your reality – and it’s true. Your focus is the gateway to success, and if you can’t keep your eyes on the prize, be prepared to wander aimlessly down avenues that lead anywhere but where you want to go.

What Is Focus?

When you focus, you avoid distractions and point your efforts toward reaching your goal. It’s foregoing a night out so you can wake up early and hit the gym tomorrow as hard as you hit it today. It’s sitting at your desk working or reading a book instead of sitting in front of your TV. It’s avoiding the everyday distractions, such as checking Facebook, emails, or paying more attention to the people around you than on what you’re trying to work on.

Get the Distractions Out of Your Way

We’re born with the ability to focus, but it can get increasingly difficult to do so as we get older since we are bombarded by distractions at every turn. Facebook, Instagram, Tik-Tok, and YouTube are just a click away. Your friends and family can be reached by picking up your phone and giving them a call. None of these things are bad in and of themselves, but when you’re trying to focus on getting the job done, they’re some of the biggest distractions. If you feel the need to do one or more of these things, then do so before you get to work. Get it all out of your system beforehand so you can focus on what needs to be done.

Prioritize Your Tasks

It’s much easier to focus on something that needs to be done right away than it is to try and get something done that doesn’t need to be finished immediately. Before you get started every day, take stock of where you want to be at the end of the day, and prioritize those tasks.

Create a Workspace Conducive to Focus

A cluttered workspace, whether with books, papers, files, or anything else will put myriad distractions right before your eyes. Instead, create a clean, simple workspace that’s devoid of things that pull your attention away from your work.

Are you a clock-watcher? Ditch the clock. Have you been itching to read that new Stephen King novel you picked up at the bookstore? Put it in another room and save it for later. It’s much easier to avoid distractions when they aren’t constantly in your face.

Turn Off Notifications

This is far and away one of the best steps you can take to improve your focus. Receiving notifications on your phone, such as from social media apps, text messages, and even some phone calls, can and probably will distract you throughout the day. Those Facebook pings will remind you people want to talk to you. Text messages may come in that pull your train of thought in another direction. Turn off notifications on your phone and check them later when you’re on a break.

Improving your focus will take time, but with the right mindset and the will to succeed, difficulty focusing won’t remain an obstacle to your success for long.

Author and businessman, Tony Velasco, teaches the principles by which he built a multimillion-dollar business enterprise in his 20s. He lives in Valencia, CA with his wife, Allison. Tony believes that the prospect of losing is a part of growth, and greater than failure we should fear regret, in all things, at all costs.

His soon-to-be-released book, F**K Regret offers a step-by-step description of how the author executes every aspect of his daily life, how he was able to sustain the shutdown of gyms and other businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how he is rebuilding. Follow him on Instagram and at https://tonyvelasco.com