# What is attention?
The so-called attention is that you decide to input the data of working memory to activate the program, so as to achieve various short-term goals.
This definition is a bit boring. Let me explain it in simple Chinese.
Simply put, the brain selectively obtains information from the external environment, and then processes it with past knowledge and experience to achieve a certain purpose. For example, you are now focusing on what I answered and absorbing it into your brain in order to learn how to concentrate.
Attention is divided into three types:
Concentration-the ability to concentrate on sensory information.
These sensory information is what we can see, hear, touch and taste.
Selective attention-the ability to choose not to pay attention to something.
For example, if you are walking on a main road, watching pedestrians and listening to various sounds, your brain will selectively process this information.
The third kind of attention is continuous attention, that is, our ability to focus on something all the time.
Lack of concentration is manifested as inability to concentrate, always absent-minded, commonly known as absent-minded One of the most common phenomena is reading, reading, reading, and being distracted. Although your eyes are reading words and your mouth is reading silently, your thoughts have gone out of the clouds and you don't know what you are reading.
The phenomenon of "mind wandering" is very common, not a disease, but a normal physiological phenomenon of human beings. Psychologists have proved that the longest time a person can keep his attention is only 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, his attention begins to decline.
But the solution to this problem is simple. Just a little distraction, just like letting it breathe fresh air, even for a moment, and then you can concentrate again.
Hmm? Is it really that simple? As long as you take a deep breath when you are distracted, you can solve the problem of continuous concentration? No, we are often disturbed. After reading these, you have surpassed 90% of the people around you. Have a rest in order to read better. If this answer helps you, I ask you to give me a compliment. You gain knowledge, and I gain recognition. Thank you.
# Internal interference and external interference make it impossible for us to concentrate continuously.
For example, you study at your desk at home (concentration and continuous attention). A notification message suddenly came from the mobile phone. You can't help but want to see it. Open it. It's the news that a friend invited you to dinner. You refused, and continued to study (selective attention).
After a while, it suddenly occurred to me that there was a good movie to be shown today, or I would have missed it without buying a ticket. Pick up the phone, open the booking software, buy the tickets and call it a day. At this time, I feel a little tired in my head and can't study any more. We must have a rest. (optional attention)
In the above case, you are studying, and suddenly a friend calls to invite you to dinner. This is the interference from the external environment, and you can temporarily resist the external interference.
However, you suddenly want to go to the movies. You think going to the movies is more important than studying. This is because the internal environment is disturbing you.
Therefore, there are two strategies for long-term focus:
# Shielding external interference sources
1. Create a minimalist physical space.
If your house is being renovated upstairs, if your neighbors and aunts often come to your house, in this environment, you need to spend extra time to deal with it.
Everyone has different anti-interference characteristics, so you need to find a study and work space that suits you. Maybe the library suits you, maybe the park suits you. You need to explore a space where you can enter a state of continuous concentration.
Some people are still distracted even in a relatively quiet environment and atmosphere. The alarm clock, pencil and knife on the desk may affect them.
The best way is to fix a few scenes and get familiar with them. In this case, we should get rid of these external interferences. For example, tidy up your study desk and get rid of anything that interferes with you immediately. If you don't know the external interference source of this scene, you can temporarily change the environment.
When flying, I often wear noise-canceling headphones, take out my Kindle reader and read books for half an hour. Then, take off your headphones and read a book for a while to observe your learning efficiency in two States.
2. Respond to the direct influence of others.
Outside interference, in addition to the influence of environmental space, there are people and things.
A. refuse to answer the phone
Telephone is the most serious interference to us. Many of my students feedback that as long as the mobile phone is around, it will pick up as soon as there is a sound.
At first, I suggest you switch your mobile phone to flight mode and study at work for 20 minutes first. Check your mobile phone after 20 minutes to see if there is any urgent information.
When you are proficient in this process, you can put the phone into silent mode. Then go to study and gradually adapt to the process without mobile phone interference.
In the information age, everyone is turned on 24 hours a day, for fear of missing something important and the best time to contact others. However, you find yourself not as important as you think.
B. learn to refuse to say no
In the office scene, if someone bothers you when you are doing something wholeheartedly, you should learn to control yourself. If the boss asks for you, you can talk about your priorities, give the power to the boss, and let him decide whether you should put down what you are doing first or carry out the task he gives you.
If you are a colleague at the same level, learn to refuse to say no, or deal with it later. Before doing anything else, put your current thing in a state where you can pause.
For example, when programmers deal with problems, they use jargon to solve bugs. This problem is being analyzed. If interrupted, be familiar with the background information from beginning to end. Reconnecting, the initial idea, is a waste of time.
# Actively reverse internal interference
A. create a sense of ceremony and stimulate motivation.
Creating a sense of ritual is simple. For example, every time before writing, I will make a cup of tea and put it in front of my desk. After writing for almost twenty minutes, I will have a drink. At this time, the tea is not so hot, so I will have a rest, get up and exercise, and then make a cup of tea.
Pour a cup of tea before writing to create a sense of ritual in writing.
The purpose of creating a sense of ritual is that when you do something, treat it as the most important thing, and you will mobilize your subjective enthusiasm and resist the interference of consciousness.
B. increase the sense of participation and let the whole body participate.
Why does it take so long to concentrate when playing games? The answer is that you need multiple senses. Increase your sense of participation, use your eyes, hands and brain together, and you will not be easily distracted at this time. At any link, if you are distracted, the sensory system will get feedback soon, and you can easily correct it immediately.
For example, when you are reading a book, if you have a pen in your hand, write and draw. Mark the core content of some books. If you are distracted, you can't write at all.
At school, students who study well are willing to sit in the front row. Sitting in the front row can clearly see the teacher's eyes and every move, and can interact with the teacher, so it is not easy to get distracted, concentrate and think hard.
Here is a little suggestion: take part in self-study and class, and don't make any small moves. Like shaking your legs and turning your pen. Some people like to turn their pens while thinking. This affects attention, while thinking about problems, but also worried about falling to the ground.
I remember when I was in high school, my deskmate often flipped through pens and dropped several, which has become a bad habit. The pen she bought is quite expensive, and it hurts to look at it.
Increase the sense of participation, use a variety of sensory systems, and improve concentration. Mobilize the five sensory systems of vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell to speed up the acquisition of information, so that the brain is not easily distracted.
The essence of mind wandering is the speed of information acquisition, which can't keep up with the processing speed of the brain. The brain uses its free processing time to be lazy and rest effectively. Keep your processing speed close to your receiving speed, and your mind will keep up with the development of what you are doing, and you will concentrate.
C. Take a break to regain your concentration
Do you find it easier to remember the beginning when you do something? Attention will decline if it lasts for a period of time. As long as we use this mechanism of the brain, we can repeat the beginning many times.
Cut the time into a period of time, so that it will be efficient every time you start. Of course, it can't be too fragmented, so it takes a while for the brain to reload the information before, commonly known as entering the state.
It is also a consideration for the school classroom to set each class as 45 minutes. You can set it shorter or longer according to your own situation.
Psychologists have also studied that decentralized learning is better than centralized learning. Study 1 hour every day for 5 days. It's better than studying for only one day and five hours. The learning effect is much better.
# Say a few small methods that I often use.
1, make minor changes to the external environment, deceive the "brain" and hook back attention.
Our sensory system is in the same state for a long time, especially when we feel tired. We need to make some small changes to readjust our brains to the environment.
For example, driving on the highway, if the route is straight, the brain will be tired after a while, leading to distraction and even dozing off, which is easy to cause accidents. Therefore, some slow corners will be deliberately set on the expressway, so that the driver's attention will be awakened again and adjusted back to the state of concentration.
You can also set yourself some detours. Such as adjusting the wallpaper background of the computer. Adjust the color of excel tables. Leave the chair every half hour.
2. Change the content of study or work.
When a university goes to the library to study, it often brings exercise books and books on at least two subjects, plus notebooks. Sometimes I do math problems for an hour and then study English for an hour. I will recite politics for a while and read physics questions for a while. In short, the learning content will be switched appropriately.
After work, I will also switch my work content appropriately. When I started to work in the morning, I was in good spirits. I will do some innovative work and think about the innovation of the project. When I feel tired in the afternoon, I will do some tidying.
3, exercise the brain, enhance tolerance
Eat well, sleep well, and have enough time to exercise your body and brain every day. Such people are more prone to stress and concentrate. ("Let the brain be free")
Drink water-even if you are not thirsty.
When you feel thirsty, your body is already in a state of mild water shortage. You won't die if you don't eat for three days. If you don't drink for three days, you may die. Put a water glass on your desk. If you often forget, you can also install an APP to remind you to drink water.
Adults of China Nutrition Society suggested that men should drink 1700 ml per day and women should drink 1500 ml per day.
Ensure adequate sleep-the study and work efficiency under fatigue is not high.
If you sleep less than 8 hours for a long time, you can take time to make up your sleep. For example, go to bed earlier than usual on weekends 1 hour, and have a longer lunch break. After 10 in the evening, find some sober activities, such as reading some leisure books and listening to some light music. I often listen to some philosophy classes, and then I fall asleep.
Take part in physical exercise-exercise more than three times a week for half an hour each time.
This is probably the oldest suggestion. However, especially for sedentary people, necessary physical exercise is necessary. You can find some sports that suit you, such as badminton, jogging and swimming. You don't have to go to the gym, which may increase your dependence. Exercise whenever you want.
Meditate or take a deep breath-calm an uneasy heart.
Have you ever found that you want to do something when you open your eyes? Fear of falling behind, fear of being dumped, the brain has been running at a high speed. The meaning of meditation and deep breathing is to give the brain a short rest. This is not the same as sleeping. Sleep belongs to passive rest, and meditation belongs to active rest, which is more controllable.
Above, you know what attention is, what kind of attention is harmful and what kind of attention is beneficial. I also know how to eliminate internal and external interference and concentrate.
But one thing, if you are not interested in what you are doing, how can you concentrate?
The following method will make you like what you do as easily as playing games.
# Get into the habit that makes you addicted
What is a habit? Cognitive psychologists believe that habit is an "unconscious behavior under situational clues", in other words, it is an action that you automatically follow instructions without thinking.
For example, brush your teeth in the morning, automatically check whether you have a mobile phone before going to work, and want to brush it when you get it. These are behaviors triggered by certain things.
Addictive habits can not only trigger behaviors, but also provide some addictive feedback. Tik Tok's little brother and sister, all kinds of new things in Weibo. These have become rewards, which make your brain secrete dopamine and like to do it. The more you invest in one thing, the more reluctant you are to give up and the more you care.
So this addiction model is: trigger-action-reward-engagement.
Give me an example of reading:
1, trigger: I will get up at 6 o'clock every morning on time, then drink a glass of water, bring a book, and don't bring my mobile phone.
2. Action: Go out for 30 minutes, go to the designated place and start reading. This designated place is to read this action trigger.
3. Reward: Some key words and paragraphs will be drawn with strokes when reading. I will write book reviews after work in the evening. Publish to Zhihu to answer or organize into original articles. After the release, you can get praise, or appreciation, or vote for the official WeChat account to get a monetary reward.
4. Input: Before I start reading, I will turn over a book. Such a small investment will make me want to finish reading this book. When you have a small start on something, you want to finish it.