Poor concentration affects everyone at one point or another. Stressful life events can make working feel like trying to navigate through a heavy fog. If your focus issues pop up regularly or persist for months, however, it may be time to look at ways to improve long-term concentration. Physical health habits drastically affect the brain’s ability to stay on task.
How Does Physical Health Affect Mental Focus?
The brain is a series of physical connections. Transmitters and receptors send chemical signals that keep your thoughts running. These connections can become stronger or weaker depending on your everyday health choices, just like your joints and muscles.
What Are 5 Healthy Ways To Improve Your Focus?
Here are five ways to improve concentration by focusing on your physical health.
1. Exercising Every Morning
Exercise helps your mind run smoothly at the same time it helps raise your vibration, leading to a more positive outlook on life. Some of the biggest health benefits of working out come in the form of better mental health. Exercise causes your brain to release neurotransmitters that reduce stress, which can be a cause of poor focus. Neurotransmitters also affect mood and your brain’s ability to form new connections. Working out in the morning for just a few minutes can make it easier to adapt to tough situations at work without losing focus or getting frustrated.
2. Supporting Sleep Quality
Even if you’re getting the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep each night, the quality of your sleep may be affecting your focus. Many people are unaware that drinking alcohol or watching TV to relax at night can cause chronic sleep issues. Sleep hygiene refers to a set of easy practices that help your brain refresh itself fully during sleep.
A simple checklist from Harvard Health lists the most important steps you can take to improve your sleep and focus during the day. Some of the items include:
- Don’t use screens for 30 minutes before bed
- Keep a consistent sleep and wake-up time
- Don’t drink caffeine or alcohol for 4-6 hours before bed
- Avoid thinking about work for 1 hour before bed
- Relax before bed with healthy activities such as stretching or reading a book
While exercise can drastically improve sleep quality, it can also fire up your body and make it difficult to get to sleep. Make sure to plan your workout more than 2 hours before bed.
3. Fueling Your Body Well
Going on an intermittent fasting diet is trendy, but it can completely wreck your ability to focus at work. As hard as you may try to ignore hunger, you can’t remove it as a mental distraction with any amount of willpower. Poor focus could mean that you’re not giving your brain the nutrition it needs to maintain good performance.
A protein-rich breakfast can make a huge difference in how you feel at work. Try meal prepping mini omelets in muffin tins. Stir a generous amount of chopped nuts into oatmeal. Fiber found in fruits, vegetables and oats promotes fullness as well. Add these components to meals to eliminate hunger masquerading as general focus issues.
4. Getting Some Sunshine
Finding time to spend in nature has huge health benefits. Taking a walk outside partway through the workday isn’t wasted time. Physically removing yourself from the workspace gives your brain permission to truly relax, reducing stress levels and increasing your capacity to focus.
5. Learning Grounding Exercises
Mindfulness can seem like an abstract concept, but it’s actually as easy to learn as riding a bike or cooking a meal. Simple grounding exercises train your mind to focus on the present moment. When you feel frustrated due to poor focus, try breathing in on a count of ten and out on a count of ten multiple times. You can also try naming the items in a room you can see, smell, hear and touch.
Maintaining focus is more than a question of willpower or inborn mental ability. Help your brain do its best by giving it quality food, sleep, relaxation and physical exercise.
