3 ways you could improve your focus/mood at work 💻

How often have we struggled to focus on a single task. How often have we got sidetracked from our original task and wasted our time on the non-important ones. The struggle is real. In 2000, the average human's attention span was 12 seconds. In 2015, the number got reduced to 8.25 seconds. That's a whopping 31.2% decrease in just 15 years. In fact, scientists reckon that we have shorter attention spans than that of a goldfish which in average has an attention span of 9 seconds. The advent of smartphones brought the entire world within our hands. The amount of information that we encounter everyday could be quite overwhelming.

So it's no wonder that we all struggle to stay focused on the important tasks nowadays, especially at our work and I'm guilty of it too. But what if I say there are some scientifically proven techniques to increase your mood/focus multi-fold. I've been using some of these techniques myself and can definitely vouch for it. ⛔ Disclaimer: Again working on improving my focus with the below techniques have always worked wonders for me in focusing during work hours and if you'd like to disagree or would like to suggest a better one, constructive debate is always welcome. Now let's dive in.

Music 🎧

From time to time music has proven to be a great mood alterer. Music has a way of permeating through empty corners and filling up environments with substance. It can help you relax, make you well up in tears, or feel alive depending on the type of music you listen and the way your mind interprets the song. For example, Someone could totally vibe for a very sad song, if their mind interprets that song in a different way. Either way music has the ability to alter your emotions. In our case we could easily leverage music as our productivity enhancer.

A 2012 Study suggests that songs without lyrics like the classical genre could actually enhance your productivity multi-fold, while songs with lyrics are likely to reduce worker attention and performance. This is because classical music usually contains alpha waves that work on a neuron level in your brain to release an hormone called Dopamine often dubbed as the 'Happy Hormone' which encourages your brain to go the extra mile. So stick to your Mozart and Beethoven. Hans Zimmer would also do 😉

Coffee ☕

Wars have been fought and empires have been brought down over this brown colored bean. Because they knew the value of this bean. Coffee beans contain a substance called caffeine, which aids in better metabolism, better heart health and even reduce inflammation in the body. On top of all this, caffeine brings your brain into a wakeful state by improving your brain's cognitive function where your brain could function at its best.

Coffee does this by increasing the secretion of an hormone called cortisol which is called as the 'fight/flight hormone' by hitting the adrenal glands. This hormone is responsible for keeping you alive during potential dangers. It essentially puts your body into survival mode both physically and mentally in which you could give your 100%. 15 or 20 mins after a cup of coffee, you will feel the energy boost and heightened focus. This is the reason why coffee is a pretty popular pre-workout drink. Coffee is indeed a magic potion.

But but but, there's always a but right? yeah, don't overdo caffeine. High level of caffeine intake is linked with high level of anxiety and sleep deprivation. Especially one should not take caffeine at least 4 to 5 hours before bed, as it is known to disrupt your sleep. The recommended amount of caffeine is 400mg/day that is almost equivalent to 4 cups (945 ml) of coffee. This should give you an idea. Stay within the limits and enjoy your morning coffee.

Sleep 💤

Yes, with this I might've offended a lot of night owls. This is no myth. Our body definitely needs a good night's sleep to function properly. Being deprived of sleep would affect your body in every possible way, be it mental or physical. It is recommended to sleep at least 7-8 hours a day. During this time, your body rejuvenates itself, patches up the whole body wherever needed. If you steal your body off these most important hours, everything will go haywire. Sleep loss has been associated with a wide range of deleterious health consequences including an increased risk of hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression, heart attack, and stroke. This is something not to be taken lightly.

Nowadays revenge bedtime procrastination is a major sleep killer. In simple terms, revenge bedtime procrastination means you get “revenge” for your busy daytime schedule by fitting in leisure time at the expense of shut-eye. And I wouldn't blame you. But remind yourself that this leisure time is being spent at the expense of your own mental/physical health.

Now, If you want to improve your sleep, try starting by being consistent. Go to bed and wakeup at the same time everyday. This way you are setting the right circadian rhythm for your body to function on. There are multiple other ways in which you could improve your sleep quality, I found this particular article very useful. Have a look and go get that 8 hour shut-eye. You'll find yourself in a better shape in just a matter of days.

winding up...

Well, Now you know why all those hackers/programmers/developers/techies (well whatever they call them in all these movies these days) have been portrayed like how you see in the below image, with a cup of coffee and headphones.

Hope you found this useful, now go get a cup of coffee and get that thing you've been struggling to complete done. Cheers! see you in the next post.