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Paying attention isn't always easy, but there are ways to get better at it. Here are seven science-backed ideas for how to improve focus.
Do you ever feel like you're struggling to concentrate? You’re not alone.
Surveys show that most people believe that their attention levels have declined in recent years, and most of us link this to the rise of smartphones. Media articles and widely cited statistics about our supposedly goldfish-like attention spans have reinforced the notion that society is losing its ability to stay on task.
Whether this is actually true is disputed by experts. Essentially, there just isn’t enough data to prove that our ability to concentrate has really changed.
But whatever the true scale of this issue, many of us are looking for ways to improve focus. At Huel, we read through dozens of peer-reviewed research papers to create this list of tips for how to improve focus and concentration.
Before looking at ways to improve focus, it's helpful to define exactly what we're talking about.
For the sake of this article, ‘focus’ is the ability to sustain concentration on an activity or task without being distracted or tempted to switch contexts. We will therefore look at how to improve concentration and focus while studying, working, or doing leisure activities like reading or exercise.
No one’s saying you need to be focused all the time (in fact, microbreaks can actually help with productivity). But if you feel you’re always getting distracted, the following ideas might be useful.
Improving focus and attention is not a one-and-done activity. It requires a mix of lifestyle changes and new habits that will take a while to settle in.
But stick with it. Making the following kinds of changes can help you improve your ability to focus, be more productive, and not feel distracted all the time.
One of the simplest things you can do to improve focus is to think about what you eat and drink. Your brain needs large amounts of energy just to function each day. Unsurprisingly, you will be able to focus better if you give it the energy it needs.
You might have heard of so-called ‘brain foods’ such as omega-3 fatty acids, commonly found in oily fish. There is no doubt that eating this kind of food is beneficial, with plenty of studies showing that people who consume lots of oily fish have better scores in tests of cognition and memory, as well as a lower risk of dementia.
However, a large study in The Lancet medical journal concluded that there isn’t one specific food type that contributes to improved cognitive function. Your ability to focus and concentrate relies on a wide variety of food sources—it's a bit simplistic to say it all depends on one specific nutrient.
Instead, experts suggest that the aim should be to follow a balanced diet that contains all food groups.
Similar to food, research also shows your hydration levels are important for focus and concentration.
In one study, participants were told not to drink anything for 36 hours (which sounds extremely unpleasant!) before being asked to perform various cognitive tests. They were then allowed to drink water and did similar tests an hour later. Once they were hydrated, they scored far better on the tests.
While most kinds of food are beneficial for focus, try to avoid anything high in sugar. The Lancet study found that people who consume more sugar tend to have poorer overall cognition.
Aim to follow a nutritionally complete (‘balanced’) diet that gives you all the micronutrients and macronutrients your body needs. Spread meals evenly throughout the day and eat healthy snacks (such as nuts, veg, fruit, or protein bars) to keep you going. Keep hydrated by drinking between 6 and 8 glasses of fluids per day.
Exercise is one of the best things you can do to improve focus.
Several studies show that working out leads to physical changes in the brain which, in turn, can improve your general cognition and memory.
In one study, 120 older adults were split into an exercise group and a no-exercise group. MRI scans measured the size of their brains at the start and end of the experiment. The results? After six months of regular cardio training, the exercise group had bigger brains and scored higher on spatial memory tests than the no-exercise group.
At a very minimum, aim to meet the World Health Organization’s target of 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week. Of course, the more you do, the better.
Ideas: How to get back into exercise after a break
We all know it—tiredness kills focus. Your eyelids start to droop, your head begins to nod, the lines on the screen start to blur…
Various studies have confirmed what most of us already know from experience. For example, one piece of research showed that sleep deprivation not only reduces attention, it also impairs higher-order cognitive processes such as placekeeping (the ability to remember the steps in a process).
It is generally recommended that adults should get 7-to-9 hours of sleep per night. It’s not always easy—whether you have young kids, noisy neighbours, or varying work shift patterns, that number can seem unrealistic. But trying to catch more Z’s really will help boost your overall concentration.
Learn more: 6 expert-approved ways to sleep better
Smartphones are amazing devices. But they can seriously sabotage your focus, especially when you’re working on less-than-thrilling tasks.
With their constant stream of notifications and the possibility of instant entertainment just a tap away, smartphones can seriously interfere with mental tasks that require sustained focus. In fact, research has shown that just having your phone in your line of sight—even when in silent mode and with the screen locked—can hurt your ability to concentrate.
On the flip side, one study got people to turn the internet off on their phones for a month. At the end of the experiment, participants had a 58.5% improvement in sustained attention tests. The researchers suggested this improvement in focus was comparable to the difference in attention between adults with ADHD and those without.
There are some simple steps you can take to reduce your phone’s potential to distract you. Perhaps most importantly, put it out of sight when you need to focus—be that on work, study, driving, or anything else. You might also find it helpful to turn off notifications for your socials, messages, and emails, and just check later when you no longer need to concentrate.
Related: Why you should put your phone away when working out
Mindfulness is a form of meditation where you pay attention to the thoughts and feelings passing through your mind. The aim is to observe your thoughts in a non-judgmental way, simply by being aware of them. To practice mindfulness, you set aside a short amount of time—as little as five minutes a day—to do this kind of observation.
So, can meditation improve focus? It appears so. In one study, people were asked to do some brief mindfulness practice for just four days. It improved their working memory, executive functioning (that is, planning and doing tasks), and visuospatial processing.
Set aside just five minutes each day for practicing mindfulness, listening to your breathing, and checking in with how you feel. There are tons of apps out there that can get you started.
Related: 5 ways to get into meditation today
If you’re struggling to concentrate, it might be that you just aren’t motivated by the task at hand.
Again, plenty of research confirms what most people know from experience—if you’re not interested in something, it’s much harder to concentrate.
There’s no getting around the fact that some stuff is just boring—whether it’s writing a report on monthly sales figures, entering data, or churning out an essay. All the same, when your mind starts to wander, it can be helpful to remind yourself of your bigger-picture motivations for doing this task.
Take a minute to write down your personal goals and motivations. This then helps attach your current tedious task to that bigger ambition, reminding you why you’re doing this work in the first place.
Say you’re a construction project manager and you’re getting distracted while writing a tedious monthly progress report. Grab a scrap of paper and write down your bigger goals - both personal motivations (e.g. to provide for your family) and professional ambitions (e.g. you want to build great buildings that people like using). By reminding yourself of your ‘why’, you might be able to concentrate better on the task at hand.
Sometimes, people’s difficulties with focusing are internal. But other times, it has more to do with the surrounding environment—background chatter, music, how hot or cold it is. Even the colour of the walls can affect your ability to concentrate. Research shows that school kids in classrooms painted in ‘cool’ tones focused better than those in ‘warm’ hued rooms.
If you work in a shared place (be that an office, a coffee shop, a factory, or a library) there’s only so much you can do about the environment. But here are some small changes that could help:
Music: Get yourself a set of noise-cancelling headphones and listen to music that helps you focus.
Brighter light: Try to work close to windows during the daytime or, if that’s not possible, under brighter lights. There is evidence to suggest this improves concentration.
Cut out on-screen distractions: If you work extensively with a computer screen, try to minimise distractions on the monitor itself. Turn off or pause email notifications and alerts in productivity apps, especially when you’re trying to do focus work. Many apps allow you to work in full-screen mode, so you’re not tempted to click on your inbox or web browser in the middle of a task.
By learning how to improve focus and concentration, you can get more stuff done, feel more in control, and spend less time on the stuff that doesn’t matter.
Improving focus and attention is more of a marathon than a sprint - it takes time and practice to change your habits, so don’t beat yourself up if you don’t get immediate results. But, by implementing some of the ideas we’ve discussed above, you should start to notice some real changes over time.
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