Concentration is the basis of performance. It's the breaks in between that get your body and mind fit. What does this mean for the organization of our working days?
When there is a lot to do, you need calm and concentration in order to cope with the tasks at hand. Instead, your thoughts are constantly wandering, playing games on your cell phone or chatting with colleagues. Why is it so hard to stay focused - and what can you do about it? The overview shows where you can turn the screws.
Clever use of ups and downs
Concentration is the ability to focus on one task at a time and ignore everything else. "However, maintaining this state for more than two hours at a time is grossly unrealistic," says neuroscientist, biochemist and book author Henning Beck.
The ability to concentrate is subject to fluctuations because nerve cells need time to adapt to different stimuli. Instead of trying to be focused all the time, learn to use the ups and downs of your ability to focus wisely.
"It's similar to sports, where you always need to alternate between exertion and relaxation," says Beck. Likewise, our brain needs relaxation phases in between to regenerate and process what we have learned. "That's why working at intervals, alternating between high and low concentrations, is actually best." Light work can be done during the deep phase.
Clever break management
Breaks are also time well invested, because afterwards you can continue working with more concentration, says Beck. The coach and author Thomas Mangold specifically recommends taking a short break of five minutes every hour to stretch, relax your eyes and brain. "You shouldn't stare at a screen if possible, not even at your cell phone."
Combining the lunch break with exercise can also help. Important: "Your head has to be able to switch off from time to time, so you shouldn't necessarily consume podcasts, videos or newspaper articles," advises Mangold.
Pay attention to the biorhythm
Early risers or night owls: The biorhythm differs from person to person and influences the times when you can concentrate particularly well. Some people are more productive in the morning, while others are more productive in the evening. "You can determine that by keeping a diary or a list about it for a while and then using it for yourself," advises Mangold.
However, you can hardly really change your biorhythm. "You can train yourself to a different rhythm, but that's extremely tedious and not necessarily recommended. It makes more sense to adapt your daily routine to your biorhythm," says Mangold.
Unfortunately, neither our work nor school systems are perfectly adapted to human biorhythms, which explains why we often find it so difficult to get up in the morning. "However, our ability to concentrate is particularly high two hours after getting up," says Mangold.
sleep and diet
Sleep and nutrition are also important factors that affect our ability to concentrate. "The body recovers during sleep and needs intervals of 1.5 hours for this. So it's best to set your alarm clock at intervals of 6 hours, 7.5 hours or 9 hours and stick to it regularly," says Mangold.
Planning meals is also helpful. Our brain uses about 20 percent of the calories we take in, and processing them takes energy. According to Mangold, it is therefore better to avoid large meals before tasks that require a high level of concentration.
stress and emotions
If you are excited, your ability to concentrate falls flat, regardless of whether you are happy or sad. "Emotions are automated reactions to stimuli and serve to process a specific stimulus particularly quickly," says Beck. This effort then overrides everything else in the brain.
Stress, on the other hand, increases the ability to concentrate temporarily, but be careful: "Stress is a biochemical blinder that narrows our perception in order to deal with a situation that is perceived as threatening as quickly as possible," says the neuroscientist.
That is why we act particularly decisively and quickly in stressful situations. However, this does not always benefit us in our jobs or studies. "In an exam or presentation, it's not the content but the situation that causes the stress, so the stress then overpowers our ability to focus on the content." It is best to simulate the exam situation beforehand in order to get used to it. Keeping calm still helps our ability to focus the most.
