5 Causes of Difficulty in Concentration and How to Overcome Them
Monday 9 January 2023
Difficulty concentrating can be said to be normal if it only occurs occasionally. However, if it happens repeatedly, you also need to deal with it immediately. This is because disturbed focus and concentration can hinder activities and also have an impact on work productivity.
Various Causes of Difficulty in Concentration
Understanding the various causes of difficulty concentrating can help you figure out how to overcome them. The following are some things that can cause difficulty concentrating:
1. Multitasking habits
Doing several tasks simultaneously or multitasking can break your concentration. This is because the brain can only and will function better when it is completing one task at a time.
In fact, multitasking habits can make you less efficient and more likely to make mistakes while working.
2. Lack of sleep
Sleep plays an important role in supporting the brain's work to focus when doing something. This is what makes a person tend to have difficulty concentrating and get easily distracted when doing something if they lack sleep.
If left continuously, lack of sleep can also affect your memory ability.
3. Bored with the task
Boring tasks can make concentration easily distracted. To overcome boredom, try to take a short break and do other fun activities. For example, making hot tea or coffee, chatting with office mates, or stretching.
4. Busy with gadgets
Gadgets can indeed facilitate daily activities. However, excessive use can have an impact on decreasing cognitive abilities in solving problems. In the end, this can affect brain function and make it difficult for you to concentrate.
5. Overthinking habits
Overthinking or the habit of thinking about many things at one time excessively can also affect focus or concentration. For example, thinking about the same problem over and over or the worst that could happen.
Besides making it difficult to concentrate, overthinking can also increase feelings of anxiety, affect mental health, and cause insomnia.
Tips to Increase Concentration
To keep your concentration and productivity awake, there are several tips to improve concentration that you can try, namely:
Limit the use of gadgets and focus on one task
Avoid doing something difficult simultaneously and make a priority list of the tasks to be done. Choose one task that needs to be completed immediately or you want to do first so that your concentration is not divided.
Also determine the time to use the gadget. If you feel the need, keep away or turn off cellphone notifications so you can concentrate more while working.
- Enough sleep time
Although sleep deprivation can affect concentration, oversleeping can also have negative effects.
In order to concentrate optimally, try to sleep for at least 7 hours every day and start sleeping at the same time every day. If necessary, use an alarm to remind you to go to bed and wake up.
- Apply a healthy diet
Make sure you get enough food portions with balanced nutritional intake. This is because hunger and lack of nutrition can also interfere with brain function and concentration.
While following a healthy diet, it is also recommended that you limit your intake of foods that have a high glycemic index, because they can cause blood sugar levels to rise quickly and affect your focus.
In addition to the various tips above, exercising regularly also has benefits in increasing concentration, and even reducing stress.
To keep your concentration optimal, don't forget to give your brain time to rest between busy schedules so that your brain can more easily receive new information and process it properly.
If you have implemented the various ways to deal with difficulty concentrating above, but you still find it difficult to concentrate, it is advisable to consult a doctor to get an examination and treatment that suits your condition.