5 Tips to Focus Better

-By Manoj J Lekhi

This can be applied by professionals, CEOs, owners, employees, students, anyone and everyone…

Let me ask you, How many thoughts do we get in a day ?

You will be surprised to know that we get about 60000-80000 thoughts in a day.  Most of these are low energy thoughts, so called negative and most of them are repetitive.    Now, with so much activity inside our minds how do we focus ?  It is very simple, follow these 5 tips, and something beautiful will happen from today onwards i

Tip # 1  Use a Thought-Pad

The first one is the most important one.  Lets say I am having conversation with you and suddenly your mind starts wandering here and there, which is bound to happen.  It happens with anyone and everyone unless we develop that skill of focusing, which may take a few weeks to few months to few years !  A simple thing to do is keep a small note pad.  We call this a thought pad.  Carry this pad always along with you.  Keep it in your pocket.   Whenever you get a thought which is creative, productive or you want to take some action on it, just take out your thought pad and pen it down.

Let us say I am having a conversation with you, and you get a thought ‘Oh I have to take my wife out for dinner’.  This will distract you and you will not hear what I am speaking so better you just write down the word ‘wife dinner’ and then you will be able to focus on our conversation. So this way, in meetings, you must always have this thought pad.  Pen down your thoughts, those on which you want to take actions, which are creative, productive, just make a little note and your mind gets released from that energy and you are able to focus. When the teacher is speaking to you, your mind goes somewhere, just make a little note.  If we don’t do this, our mind keeps on going on that track and we take a few minutes to come back and to realise that we have lost listening to some information and we did not hear what the teacher or person said.   So penning it down, keeping a thought pad, is the most important aspect of focusing.

Tip # 2  Know that it can be done later

Second is knowing that you can do it later. What happens we get a thought ?  The energy comes so strongly that we feel we must do it at that moment only.   If you get anger, I must blast on him immediately;  if you want to tell someone, you feel you must tell him immediately.  There is no need.  Once you pen it down, you can do it today, tomorrow, or day after tomorrow, whenever you feel like.  Penning it down is the first and knowing that you can do it later is the second one.   It is more of a mental habit.

Tip # 3  Be interested

Third one I learn from one of my friends He has got an incredible capacity to listen to people.  I asked him -  how come you listen to people so well? He gave me a very simple tip which I apply and I am sharing with you is – always if you are genuinely interested in the subject then you don’t have to make any effort to focus and you automatically become a good listener.  When you are interested in it,you automatically focus.  Being interested in the conversation, in the speaker, in the study, in the book, whatever you are interested in it, do it and you will effortlessly and naturally focus very well.

Being interested in what you do, is a very important part of focusing.  My master Guruji Shri Rishi Prabhakarji says always do what you are very interested in.  There are two ways to approach anything I like whatever I do or I do whatever I like !  What I spoke about is just doing what you like… But the other aspect is also true that you can start liking whatever you do.

Tip # 4  Be a learner always

Every subject has two aspects to it.  From every person, you learn what to do and what not to do… From every meeting, you learn how to be and how not to be. In everything, every moment, there is an opportunity to learn.   You can have the long term gain in whichever side of the coin you see.  If you can observe that I don’t want to have a meeting like this, that itself is a learning and in the long term your meetings will be more effective. Knowing that every moment is an opportunity to learn – to do or not to do, how to be or not to be – then your focus will be tremendously enhanced because you are always learning and observing and understanding and growing.  Learning is the adventure of life and this itself increases your focus.

Tip # 5  Affirm and apply the first 4 Tips

The fifth is the most important. I may have told you the four points but you don’t remember them.  At the time of focusing, you may have got defocused.  Tip # 5 is that you write down these 4 points as affirmations in positive present tense.  Affirmation – I apply step No.1, 2, 3, 4…. whenever I am in a meeting or studying or doing whatever I want.  When you write it down, read it everyday, spend a few minutes, just to read this and it gets reinstated in your mind. The neural path way from brain to the body gets enhanced and your body starts memorising these 4 steps.  Your focus will automatically increase. Start right away as you finish reading this.  Write down these 4 steps and the 5th one is to repeat it as and when everyday.

To summarize…

5 TIPS TO FOCUS BETTER