The art of concentration

The Art of Concentration is a new book penned by health writer Harriet Griffey. Griffey argues that there is currently an attention crisis going on. Apparently office workers are interrupted every three minutes and only concentrate thirty per cent of the time while 62% of us are addicted to email and studies have found that each day we see an average of 34 gigabytes of information, thats a whopping 100,000 words.

Chris Sanderson of The Future Laboratory points out that in Britain we work the longest hours but get the least done. “It’s a big problem.” An “attention economy” has emerged, where the scarce commodity is human attention.

In response to the situation a trend of information dieting has emerged. This new diet see’s its participants take a holiday from technology and is only the start of the attention economy. The Future Laboratory predicts attention managers, deletion parties and time coaches. Large companies such as IBM, Intel and Deloitte have already begun implementing “technology quarantines”, meaning no email and computer days. The results have been extremely positive and improved relations and high productivity have been reported.

An excellent tip is to simply focus on one single task before beginning another and resist the urge to achieve instant gratification. The following tips may also be of use:

Practice the five-more rule Try to read for five or more minutes or learn five or more things as having a goal and achieving it will help you to build up your concentration.

Exercise Keep your brain active by doing some simple mental activities such as sudoku.

Rest As ironic as it may sound you can rest constructively. Relax and play some sports or indulge in your favourite hobby. If you feel tired then take a twenty minute nap to refresh the brain but resist the urge to flop on the sofa, turn on the T.V and doze off.

Be cyber-savvy Turn off your email alerts and only check them when completely necessary, once an hour maximum.

Go rustic Urban settings are bustling and exciting but they will subconsciously have you on high alert. If you want to chill out then take a stroll in the countryside or through a park.

For the original article and full list of tips please click here.