10 Rewarding Activities That Improve Your Ability to Focus

Wondering how to improve concentration and focus while studying? Or maybe you just find your mind drifting while people are talking and you want to be able to stay in the present moment and focus on what they are saying? In today’s day and age, it’s harder to focus than it ever has been in the past. The lack of ability to focus is becoming more common due to the rise of digital technology, constant multitasking, and information overload. To answer how can I focus better, it’s essential to set boundaries with technology, practice mindfulness, get enough rest, and nourish the brain with a balanced diet. Today, we will discuss 10 activities that improve your ability to focus, help sharpen concentration, and boost productivity.

For all the advancement that the internet has brought humanity, having instant gratification at our fingertips has diminished our ability to concentrate. That said, these technologies are here to stay. Given the many benefits they provide, it can be difficult to strike a balance with your usage. What you can do, however, is actively work to improve your focus via other methods. Thankfully, there are many ways to do so. In this article, you’ll learn about 10 of the most rewarding focus-boosting activities!

How Can I Focus Better?

In today’s fast-paced world, staying focused can feel like a constant challenge. With endless distractions—from digital notifications to daily responsibilities—it’s easy for our attention to drift. However, improving focus is not just about avoiding distractions; it’s about developing habits that enhance mental clarity and productivity. By implementing simple strategies such as mindful time management, proper nutrition, and intentional breaks, you can train your brain to concentrate better and accomplish tasks more efficiently. Here are 10 activities to help with how to focus better.

1. Mindfulness Meditation

Essentially, meditation is the practice of training your attention, and mindfulness refers to the practice of sustaining mental awareness. The goal of mindfulness meditation is to combine the two, and science has found this has a direct carry-over to improving your focus.

Like how you may struggle with exercise at the start due to a lack of physical fitness, you’ll likely also struggle with your ‘mental fitness’ when you first try meditation. It’ll take time, but stick with it: start slow with just a five-minute guided session. 

2. Tabletop Games

Classic tabletop games like Chess and Solitaire, whether you play physical or online versions, have a range of positive cognitive effects that include increasing your ability to focus. 

You’ll need to hone your skills to think strategically and develop an intuition for what’s coming next during the session; you can’t passively play these sorts of games, and any activity that requires your complete attention is going to improve your focus. 

It’ll take a while to get good, but with each practice session, little by little your brain is being rewired to become better at concentrating. 

3. Physical Exercise

Regularly engaging in physical exercise is fantastic for our health – everybody knows that. But did you know that regular exercise can also help improve your ability to focus?

At the biological level, exercise increases blood flow to the brain and has been found to increase cognitive function. It’s also known to decrease stress and improve mood, which are both key factors as to why someone might find it difficult to concentrate at any given time. 

The type of exercise is up to you, so pick something you enjoy: some like running, others prefer a bike ride. Try out different types to find the method that suits you best. 

4. Learning a Musical Instrument

Learning a musical instrument takes a lot of time and effort, and the hardest part is at the beginning. Naturally, this is the point at which people are at the highest risk of giving up: you can’t really play anything that sounds good yet, and it takes patience and focus to improve. 

If you can hone those skills and get through the early stages, you won’t just be improving your ability to play your instrument, but will also gain transferable focus skills you can apply to other areas of your life. Learning an instrument has been shown to improve focus over time by altering neural networks involved in cognitive control. 

5. Playing Video Games

While video games get a lot of bad press for how they supposedly decrease a person’s ability to concentrate, the truth is much more nuanced than that. While they can potentially exacerbate the issue of a life filled with instantly gratifying activities that make focussing more difficult, it really depends on the game. 

Simple smartphone games may have this effect, but you’ve also got real-time strategy games like Age of Empires or puzzle games like Portal which do the opposite. Research has consistently supported the idea that video games can enhance multiple areas of cognitive functioning, so don’t write them off!

6. Reading

People certainly seem to read less than they did 20 years ago. It can be difficult to make the effort to pick up a book when your phone is with you 24/7, but alongside the cognitive benefits that come from acquiring knowledge and engaging with stories, books also train your ability to concentrate for extended periods of time. 

This is something that has been long established within the scientific literature. For example, this study details how reading stimulates the prefrontal cortex – the area of the brain that’s most important for developing focus, and by extension, the area that’s most affected by the overstimulation of smartphones. 

7. Coloring, Drawing, and Painting

Many people consider themselves to be bad at art, but like anything, you won’t be great unless put in the time and effort. Engaging in coloring activities, drawing, and painting is a rewarding and relaxing activity, and it can improve your ability to focus in several key ways. 

Making a beautiful piece of artwork requires practice, patience, and conceptualization, each of which is fundamental in fostering greater concentration skills. One of the best ways to start is with a simple adult colouring book: this removes the daunting aspect of creating something from scratch – that’s something you can work up to later. 

8. Learning a New Language

Learning a new language has a huge range of benefits, with perhaps the biggest one being how it unlocks a potential to engage with other cultures and seek out new opportunities. 

Aside from those obvious benefits, though, language learning can also greatly improve your focus. Sitting down to learn a language presents a significant challenge to your brain, whether it be processing vocabulary, listening carefully to native speakers, understanding completely different grammatical rules than you’re used to, and so on. Each of these difficult skills carries over to improvements in being able to concentrate for extended periods.

9. Jigsaw Puzzles

Not a lot of people are into jigsaw puzzles these days – but they should be. They embody the idea of patience by giving your brain the ultimate workout, whether it’s in analysis, recognition, visual-spacial reasoning, and more. 

If you can develop the skills to have enough patience to complete a complicated jigsaw puzzle, then you’ll find that you can use those same skills in other areas of your life, such as work and study. 

There’s a huge variety of different puzzles to choose from to suit any interest or hobby. It’s recommended that you don’t start with something too complex at first, however. 

10. Models and LEGO Sets

While you might have built scale models and played with LEGO plenty as a kid, you probably haven’t considered doing so in your adult life. 

If you want to improve your focus, though, you might want to reinstate your love for the activity. Building a model or completing a LEGO set is the opposite of the instantly gratifying practices we’re so used to on a daily basis: they require an immense amount of patience and, importantly, your undivided attention. 

LEGO now sells adult sets that are of greater complexity than anything you’d have built as a kid, and there are dozens of them to choose from. 

In the same vein, classic model kits such as Airfix or those made out of wood are similarly rewarding, and enable you to build your ability to focus while also having something to show for it at the end. 

Conclusion

Whether you are wondering how to focus better in school or in family conversations, rest assured it can be done. The first step to improving focus is prioritizing brain health through a healthy lifestyle. Giving your full attention to tasks without constant interruptions from social media or mobile phones is a great way to enhance productivity. Cognitive training, such as mindfulness exercises and mental challenges, can also strengthen concentration over time. Additionally, ensuring you get enough sleep and addressing issues like sleep apnea or other medical conditions that affect focus is essential. Regular physical activity, along with proper nutrition, supports mental clarity and overall well-being. By making these changes, you can avoid wasting too much time on distractions and cultivate a sharper, more focused mind.

Lack of ability to focus can be a real problem. Social media, instant messaging, and endless notifications compete for our attention, making it harder to concentrate for extended periods. Additionally, chronic stress, poor sleep, and an unhealthy diet can negatively impact cognitive function. However, there are ways to improve focus. This article has provided you with a wide range of activities you can use to gradually improve your concentration. Hopefully, you’ll find something that resonates with you. Remember, it’ll take time to see an improvement in focus, but stick with it, and you’ll benefit from a payoff that will improve all areas of your life.

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