What you can do if you, or your kids, are struggling to concentrate
Do you ever find yourself struggling to concentrate?
You know you should be getting that university assignment underway, or that presentation ready but somehow you just can’t seem to actually sit down and do it.
You find you suddenly have an urgent need to tidy your room, or vacuum, or check what is in the fridge because maybe you are hungry…
I think most of us have had a similar experience at some stage or another.
It becomes problematic when it happens all the time and getting any kind of task becomes almost impossible.
There can, of course, be a number of reasons for this and if you have a medical condition then you need to take that into account when you are trying to accomplish a task.
That said, there are possibly some things you can do at home to help you concentrate.
Be aware of when you have the most trouble just sitting down to a task.
What time of day is it?
Do you do better in the morning, afternoon or evening?
Pay attention to try to figure this out.
Once you have an idea of what works best for you then try to schedule the time so that you can get the things that require your full attention done in that time.
Is it procrastination or concentration?
It is easy to get these two confused because procrastination can easily look like a lack of concentration.
Is there something about the task that you find confronting so you don’t want to do it?
Does completing the task in question mean that there will be some kind of repercussion?
Will it mean that now you really have to do that thing you said you were going to do?
If you find that procrastination is your problem then you are going to want to have a look at the reason you are struggling so much with that task and find some way to deal with it.
Often just recognising what you are doing will give you the opportunity to ‘get out of your own way’ and finish the job.
Do you find it easier to work with some background music or sounds or do you need it to be quiet?
Sometimes having background noises or music can help your concentration and sometimes they can be intrusive.
If you have something that works as ‘white noise’ for you then try having that playing in the background.
If you want to have some music playing then there have been quite a lot of studies done to show that classical music can be helpful for concentration.
The computer problem.
If you find that it is computer work that you tend to have difficulty with there could be some other reasons for this.
Firstly, just sitting down for longer periods of time can be difficult for some people so using a method like the Pomodoro Method may help with this.
The Pomodoro method is where you work for 25 minutes and then have a break, usually this is around 5 minutes, then work for another 25 minutes. If you are interested in learning more about why this can be so effective then I suggest you read this article, Why the Pomodoro Method is so Effective.
The technology problem.
Another reason you may have difficulty concentrating is because, even though it is very useful, technology is not really your friend.
I say this because the radiation emitted by most of our technology and, in particular, computers, phones and Wi-Fi, affects your brain1.
There are many studies which have been carried out to see what this affect might be and overall the results are not conclusive “The effect also seems to depend on the mental load of the subject during exposure, e.g., on the complexity of the task that a subject is carrying out.1”
There have also been studies to determine if the exposure to radiofrequency radiation has an effect of cognitive function, or how well your brain is functioning. In this case there were results showing a detrimental effect and a number of the studies found a positive effect. Of these, a large number of them were funded by the mobile phone industry. It is important to remember to check for conflicts of interest when you are checking and reading research articles because there may be a bias.
There are other symptoms that people report as a result of using their computers, phones and Wi-Fi and these include: sleep disruption and insomnia, fatigue, headache, memory loss and confusion, tinnitus, spatial disorientation and dizziness.
So, while you may not experience all, or even any, of these symptoms, you may find it difficult to concentrate r perhaps have some other experience from this technology.
If you would like to have a look at whether your computers and other devices may be affecting you I have made this downloadable questionnaire to help you.
Solutions
If you already know your computer affects your concentration and you are looking for a solution then a screenFloww would help you solve this problem.
A screenFloww is made specifically to sit close to your computer, or laptop, or tablet to change the way your body responds to the radiation from these devices.
It is important to remember that you don’t need to change the radiation, because if you do that you will affect the way your devices function, but to change the way your body responds to the radiation and a screenFloww will help with this.
The Floww range is made up of a number of different products suitable for different applications. You can see the whole Floww product range here.
If you find concentrating difficult then it is definitely trying some of the things I have listed above to help you be more productive.
References
- Evidence for Effects on Neurology and Behavior – https://bioinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/sec09_2007_Evidence_Effects_Neurology_behavior.pdf