We live in a modern world where it is very easy to become distracted. With mobile devices at our fingertips and new technologies that take up a lot of our attention, focusing can become a real challenge. People can have a limited supply of attention and a lack of focus can drain your energy and damage your productivity at work or school.
Since focusing your attention on too many different things can be a problem, it can be helpful to try to remove temptations that cause you to be distracted. If you are trying to focus on an important work project for example, it can be a good idea to switch off your mobile device. That way you can focus all of your attention on one thing instead of dividing it between your task and other distractions.
Aside from obvious external distractions, it can also be easy for our own mind to lose focus on what we are doing. You thoughts might wander away from the task at hand as you start following a train of thought that is unrelated to what you are doing. Although this is a natural thing for our brain to do, it can slow down productivity and make it harder to focus.
It can be challenging to keep our thoughts focused but learning to redirect them when they start to go down the wrong path can prove to be an important skill. This requires catching impulses right when they occur and becoming more aware when our thoughts begin to stray. It also means stopping behaviors such as getting out of your seat, reaching for your phone or other physical ways we distract ourselves.
Essentially, maintaining focus means eliminating all external distractions and remaining mindful so that you stay productive and keep your attention on the task at hand.