One Important Skill To Learn That Is Worth Exploring
Important to develop this skill especially in the current climate.
You might be scratching your head and looking at the title, thinking, ‘What Skill could that be?’
Well, It’s not communication, confidence, critical thinking or creativity.
Yes, those are all important skills, but not the ones I am going to mention.
I will give you a hint, it starts with ‘C’.
Can you guess what is it?
It’s Concentration.
Now, you might be wondering why concentration is even a skill worth exploring.
Let me explain.
In the fast-paced, technology-driven world we live in, distractions have become all too common.
Whether that be the fear of missing out on seeing your friends on holiday, a notification popping up and grabbing your attention or simply resorting to technology out of boredom.
Our ability to concentrate is constantly being tested.
But You know what’s interesting?
We use technology so extensively in our daily life that it has become something that we are dependent on and even addicted to.
Now, Don’t get me wrong.
Technology can transform our productivity, store information, serve as regular reminders, facilitate communication and the list goes on and on.
In Fact, a 2019 research conducted by global tech company Asurion found that: Americans check their phone 96 times a day.
If you think about it in 24 hours.
That’s every 15 minutes.
If that statistic is correct, then we have to question whether those times we used our phones were purposeful.
Consider another report, from Common Sense Media in 2016, which found that 50% of teens “feel addicted” to their mobile devices.
This study involved 1,240 parents and children from the same households (620 parents, 620 kids).
Our electronic gadgets play an important part of our daily lives.
However, learning to prevent ourselves from being distracted by these devices can allow us to focus towards our goals and objectives in life.
I will share one more research study, just to emphasis this point.
Participants in this study were engaged in attention-demanding tasks where a phone notification went off. Those that were instructed to not interact with the phone experienced a decrease in performance than those who did not receive a notification.
Therefore the mere presence of a notification can cause can disrupt our attention and focus.
It emphasizes the importance of removing distractions from our environment when we want to give our full attention to an activity.
So, how do we improve our concentration and focus?
The first step is to remove distractions.
As the saying goes ‘“Out of sight, out of mind”
Building on the aforementioned study, removing distractions can divert our attention from activities that are important to us.
For those who find it difficult to resist the temptation of checking their phone, it’s helpful to physically put it away, making it less accessible and requiring more effort to retrieve.
Another important strategy is to be intentional with your time.
Many of us allocate a specific amount of time within our calendars to do a task, let’s say 3 hours.
But within those three hours, how much time do we spend focusing and concentrating on the task at hand?
We must ask ourselves if we truly utilize the entire three hours effectively, or if we only spend a fraction of that time working while the rest is spent procrastinating or engaging in unproductive activities.
The final strategy is to break the task into smaller parts.
Often, We can become overwhelmed with our final goal, causing us to feel motivated, lazy and distracted.
However, focusing our energy to take small steps to achieve the overall goal, can make a big difference in the long term. Rather than overburdening yourself with a mammoth of a task, just to give up and stop.
As the proverbial expression goes “Rome was not built in a day”
That’s all for today, but remember to take advantage of technology and don’t let it take advantage of you by wasting your time unnecessarily and distracting you from your objectives in life.
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