July 2021 - Only Getting Better

5 Powerful Ways to Halt Limiting Beliefs in their Tracks

July 28, 2021July 28, 2021by amandakaybradley18 Comments

As the name implies, limiting beliefs are beliefs that hold you back in some area of your life. These beliefs about yourself or the world keep you stuck in toxic patterns of guilt, sadness, and inadequacy.

They keep you from flourishing into the person you’re meant to be.

Limiting beliefs live deep in your subconscious, fueling fear and driving your decision-making.

And do you want to know the worst part?

The fact that limiting beliefs stem from your subconscious rather than your thinking mind means that identifying and reversing them can be tricky.

Tricky but NOT impossible!

Stick with me as we unpack limiting beliefs, including examples, where they come from, and most importantly, powerful ways to reduce their influence in your life.

This post may contain affiliate links, and as an affiliate of Amazon, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you if you purchase through a link. Please see my full disclosure for further information.

One Shark and Several Fish

Have you heard of the shark and fish experiment?

It’s a potent example of how limiting beliefs can replace even the most fundamental instincts.

As the story goes, a marine biologist decided to see whether a shark could be conditioned to stop eating fish.

The biologist started by putting a shark in a tank with small fish. Obviously, the shark ate the fish.

The next step was to create a physical boundary between the shark and fish. As you can imagine, the shark made an aggressive attack on the plexiglass, initially injuring itself.

The shark continued its fruitless attacks on the fish. Eventually, the shark’s attacks grew less and less aggressive.

After a while, the marine biologist removed the plexiglass.

And guess what?

Not one fish was harmed. The shark did not attempt to attack even though the physical boundary was gone.

With the plexiglass gone, the shark could have feasted to its heart’s content. But the shark couldn’t overcome the limiting beliefs that overrode its basic survival instincts and eventually died.

Unfortunately, the same thing can happen to our dreams and goals if we don’t identify and breakthrough our self-constructed barriers.

What are limiting beliefs?

In most instances, limiting beliefs are formed in early childhood. At the most basic level, limiting beliefs start as the brain’s attempt at rationalizing a situation.

Let’s look at a widespread limiting belief that millions all over the world share: “I am not important.”

When you were growing up, how many times did you ask for your parents’ attention? I’m guessing it’s somewhere around the millions.

For whatever reason, your parents were unable to give you the attention you were seeking at that moment. And they may have had a perfectly legitimate reason for not paying attention.

But at that moment, your little brain came up with a story. A story that has stuck with you to this day.

And the story deep down inside is that you don’t matter.

Since that time, the thought that you’re not important has become so deeply ingrained within that it runs on autopilot. Much like the shark hitting the plexiglass, you’ve constructed stories that keep you from reaching your full potential.

Limiting Beliefs as a Safety Mechanism

Although I’ve painted a grim picture of limiting beliefs as a whole, it’s worth mentioning that they do serve as a safety mechanism. They keep us from inherently questionable decisions like picking up a random hitchhiker or stealing an ATM.

To backtrack a bit, when you boil down the most basic of all brain functions, safety is the #1 priority. It’s your brain’s job to keep you safe.

And although you may be aware of this primary function of the subconscious, seeing it in action isn’t always obvious. But your subconscious is constantly on the alert for potentially “dangerous” situations.

Over time, the definition of “dangerous” has changed drastically. Danger used to mean an attack from a saber tooth tiger or a gang of marauding pirates.

But nowadays, danger comes in the form of public speaking, a job interview, or even a difficult conversation with your spouse. It’s a far cry from the immediate threat of life or limb.

And to be fair, the constant processing of environmental stimuli is a tremendous job. It’s way too big for the conscious mind to tackle, thus the reason for the subconscious.

But when the subconscious picks up on negative emotions, it feeds stories to the conscious in an attempt to keep you far from danger.

The Fine Line Between Safety and Stagnation

And when your subconscious picks up on negativity, those limiting beliefs come out in full force. They form a barrier that can be difficult to overcome.

In days gone by, the barrier would be a good thing. It would’ve kept you alive.

But in today’s world, the barrier keeps you from honestly expressing yourself or going all-in on something you’re passionate about. Negativity, therefore, starts a feedback loop fueled by fear and false stories you’ve concocted based on events you may not even have fully understood at the time.

Although the stories were created when you were young, it’s never too late to reverse them.

Let’s explore how you can halt limiting beliefs in their tracks!

How can you expand your limiting beliefs?

It’s difficult to reverse limiting beliefs about yourself unless you’re crystal clear on what those beliefs are. Asking yourself a series of questions and capturing the responses by putting pen to paper is hands down your best bet.

It turns out that writing is one of the best ways to unite the logical left brain with the creative right. This “whole-brain” approach is an effective way to access complex emotions and thought patterns. ^A

In other words, journaling connects the two parts of your brain in a way that enables you to understand yourself and the world around you more deeply.

If you haven’t already incorporated journaling into your daily routine, now is the time! Let’s walk through how you can apply this powerful technique to unlock your limiting beliefs.

Step 1: Uncover Your Limiting Beliefs Through Journaling

In the first step, you will consider the various areas of your life and determine where you’re at in this moment.

Ask yourself the following questions:

What are the goals I’m working toward? (self, home, work, relationships, hobbies, etc.)
Am I satisfied with the progress I’m making in each of these areas?
Are the results in each area consistent with where I would like to be?
And are there areas where I would like to make progress but just can’t seem to get ahead?

Step 1 is a brainstorming session. Now is NOT the time to censor yourself!

Remember that no one has to read what you’re putting on paper. The most crucial piece of uncovering your emotions and thought processes is honesty with yourself.

Step 2: Analyze Your Writing

As you write, pay close attention to your mood and energy levels when you think about all the different aspects of your life. If you have particularly negative thoughts or feelings about something, consider those feelings a red flag for limiting beliefs.

Equally important are your explanations about why you’re not getting results because those stories almost always have their roots in limiting beliefs.

As you think about what you’ve written, carefully consider whether the stories you’re telling yourself are serving you in any way.

Remember all that stuff about the subconscious and safety? This is where all that comes into play. As an example, one of my most deeply rooted limiting beliefs is that I’m not good enough.

This belief manifests itself as significant performance anxiety in my work as a pianist. Although I love playing the piano, the limiting belief that I’m not good enough causes my hands to shake and my heart to beat faster.

Both physical reactions make playing accurately infinitely more challenging.

Deep down, my subconscious has hard-wired feelings of inadequacy, resulting in physical changes in a performance situation. And all this happens because my brain interprets fear as a negative emotion to be avoided at all costs.

Step 3: Flip the Script

Once you uncover your core limiting beliefs, it’s time to challenge those thoughts. Remember that most of your limiting beliefs were formed in early childhood when your understanding of the world around you was incredibly limited.

And seeing them written in black and white in front of you has a way of uncovering them as the lies they’ve always been. Because your thoughts are deeply personal, it’s easy to believe that thoughts are truth.

But in most cases, thoughts are simply thoughts. Neither positive nor negative. It’s only when you assign some type of meaning to them that they can exert their influence one way or the other.

Writing your own script, therefore, becomes crucial.

For each limiting belief you uncover, use your story-telling prowess to concoct a belief that positively serves you.

Step 4: Find the Evidence

“Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.”
Henry Ford

Once you’ve come up with a new story, it’s time to solidify it. You can lock the new story in by looking for evidence around you that supports your more positive belief system.

And it may sound crazy, but there’s an area of the brain designed specifically for this task.

It’s called the reticular activating system, and its job is to filter out millions of stimuli to find those most relevant to you. ^B

The reticular activating system is why you hear your name in a noisy room. Or why you buy a red car and suddenly see red cars everywhere.

We recently added a Goldendoodle puppy to our family. Before bringing him home, I rarely saw other doodles out and about. Since his addition to our family, I see at least one doodle wherever I go.

And the truth is, doodles were always everywhere. But until getting one, my reticular activating system never alerted me to their presence.

What this means for you is that if you look for evidence to support your positive beliefs, you’ll find it. Unfortunately, the converse is also true. And up until now, your reticular activating system has been programmed to find evidence supporting your limiting beliefs.

Step 5: Personal Development

I’m not here to sugarcoat anything. Reversing your limiting beliefs takes work. This process takes serious effort! But the alternative is to stay stuck in a negative cycle of guilt and inadequacy.

Ain’t no one got time for that!

As you create new belief patterns and are looking for evidence to support those narratives, don’t underestimate the power of personal development.

Whether in the form of blogs, podcasts, or even masterminds, filling your mind with positivity is powerful.

I also highly recommend paying attention to your mood and energy levels. If your mood and energy are low, it’s much easier to get sucked into being a negative Nelly.

It becomes difficult to break out of your comfort zone and away from those tired old limiting beliefs. Taking care of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally is something I can’t recommend highly enough.

It’s the key between telling yourself that you matter and actually feeling as if you matter.

If you’re looking for some quality personal development, check out some of my top posts:

And if you’re looking for further inspiration, make sure you check out my top book recommendations:

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Feel free to drop a comment below with the limiting beliefs you’re struggling with right now. I’d love to support you on your journey toward a more positive inner (and outer) world!

A: Purcell, M. (2016, May 17). The Health Benefits of Journaling. The Health Benefits of Journaling (psychcentral.com)

B: van Schneider, T. (2017, June 22). If you want it, you just might get it. The reticular activating system explained. If you want it, you might get it. The Reticular Activating System explained | by Tobias van Schneider | Desk of van Schneider | Medium

Piano

An Authentic Review of the Modacity App

July 12, 2021November 17, 2023by amandakaybradley13 Comments

Are you a musician who loves to play but struggles with practicing? Maybe you understand the basic concepts of effective practice but staying organized is challenging. It’s hard to focus on the music itself between the tuner, metronome, and your practice journal.

Or perhaps you love practicing but always seem to lose track of time or can’t stay focused. In other words, it’s challenging to identify your practice goals.

Maybe the entire concept of practice mystifies you a bit. I will be the first to raise my hand to that one!

Although I began playing piano at the age of 7 and continued through college, I struggled with practice. My sessions were inconsistent and sporadic. Despite having weekly lessons, I was always unsure how to effectively apply information from my lessons to the practice room.

Unfortunately, I was also too embarrassed to ask tough questions. The type of questions that would have transformed my concept of practice and elevated my playing.

Having a poor grasp on practice ultimately contributed to performance anxiety, frustration, and low self-confidence.

After college, I started getting serious about practice. I began searching for ways to practice more consistently and effectively. And my search eventually led to the Modacity app.

Read on for both my experience with and my review of the Modacity app.

This post may contain affiliate links, and as an affiliate of both Amazon and Modacity, we may receive a commission at no extra cost to you if you purchase through a link. Please see our full disclosure for further information. All images courtesy of Canva.

What is Modacity?

Modacity is an app designed to promote thoughtful practice over meaningless repetition.

You start by entering the names of pieces you’re working on into the app. The pieces can then be arranged into playlists. I’ve seen people organize playlists by upcoming audition, recital, or even according to the day of the week.

The act of creating a playlist fosters intention by allowing you to plan out your practice session in advance. You can set specific goals for each piece. And if you’re unsure of how to improve a piece, it gives you a wide range of suggestions to try.

The app also enables you to set a timer for each piece, so you know exactly when to move on.

Modacity allows you to save practice notes with each piece. It also provides convenient access to a metronome and tuner. The app then saves the settings under each piece so you can always pick up exactly where you left off.

The app also comes fully equipped with a recording feature that permanently saves recordings to the app.

One of my favorite features of the app is the practice counter. It adds up the number of consecutive practice days and total minutes spent practicing. It’s a highly motivating feature for those out there who find motivation in statistics.

Although there are ways to piece together the various elements of effective practice, there are no other apps out there quite like this one!

And to prove the point, let’s dive into principles of genuinely effective practice.

What are the principles of effective practice?

I’m fascinated with the topic of effective practice! And I’m passionate about unlocking the secrets of the most effective and efficient practice. How do musicians (or anyone else) improve at their craft and rise above the rest?

This question led me to a book called Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise written by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool. Ericsson spent his life pursuing that very question and documented his findings in the book.

And after researching the world’s best athletes, musicians, and memorizers, he had several striking revelations. One is the importance of deliberate practice.

In other words, simple repetition is not enough. When trying to improve at anything, you must have a deliberate plan for improvement. And ideally, the plan includes immediate feedback of attempts. At the bare minimum, deliberate practice consists of a shot at something, analysis of whether you hit the mark, and a plan to modify as needed.

The second striking revelation resulting from Ericsson’s research is that practice is anything but fun most of the time. Truly effective, meaningful practice is tedious and not inherently motivating.

And thirdly, excellence requires you to leave your comfort zone. You can’t expect to get different results from doing the same things you’ve always done.

How does Modacity support effective practice?

Although the topic of effective practice is enormous, let’s consider how Modacity fits into the above three principles.

Review of the Modacity app: Deliberate Practice

Effective practice requires a plan. It requires intention and a deliberate approach to improvement.

Through the creation of playlists, Modacity encourages you to make a practice plan. And it helps you move efficiently through the plan with the timer function.

The app also helps with feedback by encouraging you to record yourself. In other words, Modacity provides you with a framework for deliberate practice.

Review of the Modacity app: Practice is Tedious

Practice will never be exciting 100% of the time. Repetition can be monotonous. But Modacity encourages you to put thought into each repetition. It does this by providing you with ideas for positive change. The app then prompts you to consider whether you achieved your goal.

Modacity helps you avoid mindless repetition and keep things as efficient as possible by providing a framework for analysis.

And the practice counter gives you extra incentive to put in the practice time.

Review of the Modacity app: Leave Your Comfort Zone

If you’re stuck in a practice rut, Modacity helps you break free. It does this by combining a range of tools and concepts into one helpful app.

Similar to a new recipe for an old favorite, Modacity calls for a unique combination of flavors. It includes all the old ingredients but adds that little touch of something extra to spice things up.

The app invites you to consider practice from a new perspective. It proposes a thoughtful, deliberate approach to improvement over the black hole of mindless repetition that leads nowhere.

Are there drawbacks to using Modacity?

This review of the Modacity app wouldn’t be authentic without the addition of a few drawbacks. And the biggest one for me is the inability to export your recordings out of the app. Once you record something within the app, it’s stuck there.

I get around this by simultaneously recording practice sessions, complete with video, on my computer. Using both recording modalities offers the benefit of alternate feedback. The app is typically easier to use for immediate feedback on small chunks of music, such as one or two measures.

On the other hand, going back through and watching my entire practice session enables me to take a larger view of my sessions. It helps me determine whether I’m using time efficiently or whether my posture is relaxed.

Although slightly annoying, the inability to transfer recordings off the app isn’t a dealbreaker for me.

Another drawback I’ve heard about the app is the poor recording quality. My response to that is sound quality is only as good as the device on which you’re recording. If you’re looking for high quality, I suggest buying a microphone to sync with your computer rather than relying on Modacity. By doing so, you have the bonus of capturing both audio and video.

Again, in terms of forming the habit of listening back to yourself while practicing, this app can’t be beaten.

Click here for the affordable and effortless microphone I use.

Who should try the app?

I believe there is a wide range of musicians who would benefit from using Modacity. From beginning musicians learning how to practice effectively to adults struggling to grasp the concept of practice, there is value in this app.

Whether you are a high schooler preparing for a jazz band concert or an adult amateur serious about upping your piano game, this app is for you!

Is the app for a specific instrument?

Modacity is an app that can be used with a wide assortment of instruments. As mentioned above, it comes with a variety of built-in tools useful for an array of instrumentalists. The tool I use most frequently is the metronome which also can subdivide beats.

As a pianist, I don’t use the drone function, but I can see how it would be helpful for instruments that require tuning.

Beyond the tools are the features that promote effective practice and are beneficial to anyone.

Is there a cost to using the app?

One could categorize this next one as another drawback in this review of Modacity because there is an associated cost to using the app. On the other hand, I’ve had terrible experiences with free apps, so having an associated cost often means a higher value product.

Modacity recently changed their payment systems and you can now choose between a monthly or an annual membership. The monthly cost is a very reasonable $8.99 while the yearly cost is normally $107.

But thanks to my partnership with the app, you can save $42 on a yearly membership and pay only $65 by clicking here. It’s a pretty sweet deal for such a transformative practice tool!

Is there access to an expert if I get stuck during my practice session?

Although the app itself cannot tell you whether you played something correctly, it does have access to expert musicians. I have yet to submit a question, but according to their website, you can ask general questions and expect feedback from someone knowledgeable in that area.

Are there similar music practice apps out there?

The short answer is that, yes, other music practice apps exist. Unfortunately, I had been searching long and hard for an app to promote better practice habits when I stumbled across Modacity.

That was over two years ago, and I still use the app daily. From the instant I downloaded Modacity, I recognized its value and never bothered to check out any other apps.

I was so impressed with the positive changes I saw in my practice sessions that several months ago, I became an affiliate partner with Modacity because I wanted to share the app with the world.

Although you could say I’m a bit biased, believe me when I tell you that I’ve never been more motivated to practice. And that includes my college years when I had access to the best practice and performance instruments out there. Not to mention a mountain of free time and very little daily responsibility.

It’s a huge accomplishment to be at a place where you prefer practice to Netflix and are seeing almost unbelievable results from your efforts. All thanks to a shift in practice mindset triggered by an app.

Review of the Modacity App: Additional Resources and Links

In summary, I hope you found this review of the Modacity app useful. If there are additional questions, please leave a comment below, and I’ll do my best to update this post accordingly.

I will leave you with a few additional resources to further your musical journey!

Interested in learning to play piano as an adult? Check out this post.
Curious about whether there are benefits to learning piano? Browse this post.
Ready to leap into piano lessons? Read this post.
Inspired to transform your habits? You’ll love this post.
And don’t forget to take advantage of this exclusive offer from Modacity!

Inspiration & Motivation

How to Dramatically Improve Your Mental Focus

July 5, 2021July 5, 2021by amandakaybradley26 Comments

The world is full of distractions. Thanks to technology, we can now follow any breaking news story in even the most remote corner of the world. Or stay caught up with friends from high school without as much as a phone call. We can even entertain ourselves for hours on end simply by watching 30-second video clips made by strangers.

All these distractions can make focusing on one task for any length of time feel impossible. And it can seem as if the world discourages the deep mental focus necessary for goal achievement and true mastery.

The good news is that there are ways you can dramatically improve your mental focus. Even if you’re not training for the Olympics or to be a cab driver in London, learning to improve your mental focus has incredible benefits. From stress relief to momentum to a greater sense of accomplishment, taking the time to improve this vital skill is well worth the effort!

In the following post, I’ve broken down the various ways you can improve focus both in the moment and over time. Although each tip requires effort, the benefits over time far outweigh the time spent up-front.

This post may contain affiliate links and as a member of the Amazon Affiliate program, this means we may receive a commission at no extra cost to you if you make a purchase through a link. Please see our full disclosure for further information.

How to Dramatically Improve Your Mental Focus NOW

Although there are long-term tactics and daily habits which compound to better focus over time, there are also ways you can improve your mental focus right here, right now.

Pay Attention to Your Surroundings

Check the clutter. Does your environment encourage you to focus, or is it distracting? I’m speaking from experience when I say that focusing surrounded by messiness is nearly impossible.

As an example, I give you Exhibit A, my living room, when I sat down to start this post yesterday. It gave off an incredibly messy, cluttered, and chaotic vibe. And although I tried as hard as I could, I wrote barely ten sentences.

Yikes … did a typhoon hit my living room?!

Getting into the flow of creativity felt impossible.

So I took a break. I hit up Pinterest and got my organizational groove going. And then I made a quick Wal-Mart stop.

Three short hours later, my living room was well on its way to Better Homes & Gardens greatness. Maybe it wasn’t quite impressive enough for a magazine, but things feel 100% more relaxing.

Huge improvement! Ready for my photo shoot …

And when I’m relaxed, it’s much easier to get into a creative flow.

Needless to say, after taking a timeout to organize my environment, my mental focus improved by leaps and bounds. If you’re also struggling to get into a creative flow, take a quick check of your surroundings. It may be well worth your while to take time out to be more productive in the long run.

Limit Distractions

It’s ironic that as I type, my 5-year-old is whispering, “and now the chickens have the ball” into my ear. And the dog has wrapped himself up around the patio furniture for the 16th time today.

If I haven’t mentioned it before, I’ll say it here. Life is one huge distraction!

Although distraction comes in all shapes and sizes, it’s not all bad. I love my family more than anything and acknowledge that my kids are growing bigger every day. At some point, they will no longer be whispering random phrases about chickens in my ear.

I’m thankful for the distraction my family brings because it reminds me of what’s truly important.

But having limitations on my time and attention means I’ve learned to limit wherever I can. One of the ways I’ve done this is by shutting off phone app alerts. As a result, I am no longer interrupted every time I get an email. Shutting off phone alerts is one of the simplest ways to improve your mental focus.

Although stopping a task to respond to one email may not seem like a big deal, it adds up over time. Research shows that it can take around 23 minutes to re-focus on a task after an interruption.¹ Multiply that one email by the total number of emails you get in one day, and it’s easy to see why limiting interruptions matters!

Add Variety

This next tip is for you if you want to improve a skill or to understand a topic on a deeper level. Whether you’re trying to become a better pianist or pass a business law exam, get creative with your study time.

The more creative you can get, the better! For example, if you’re studying for an anatomy quiz, bust out your lyric writing skills and pair that previously boring material with your favorite pop tune. You could also try creating a quiz, explaining the topic to a friend, or even writing a blog post about it.

And when practicing a skill or studying, keep in mind that learning doesn’t stop at remembering the information. You have to also practice retrieving the information you’ve stored in your brain. Finding creative ways to store and access the information ensures stronger neural connections and the ability to apply the knowledge in various settings.

Using a variety of techniques to learn keeps things exciting. And when something is interesting, it’s much easier to improve your mental focus.

Don’t Scratch the Itch

Have you ever been trying to get into a creative workflow, but all these intrusive thoughts keep popping up?

“I wonder if Jessica had her baby yet. I should check Facebook.”

“Is it going to rain later today? I should check the weather.”

“What are the current COVID-19 rates in my state? Maybe I should check the news.”

It’s almost as if your brain knows it will be working hard, and it wants to avoid the work by distracting you. And it usually distracts you with incredibly superficial ideas. The type of ideas that take almost zero energy to address.

And since these ideas take no energy, one would think they’re not a big deal. Except for a couple of things. Remember how long it takes to re-focus when you’ve been distracted? Multiply that one distraction by the number of times your attention shifts from the topic at hand during the day.

The other thing is that distraction can become a habit. Give in too many times, and your brain forgets how to do the challenging work necessary for goal accomplishment.

My brain loves to throw superficial distractions at me constantly. I’ve found that when I consistently give in, it’s much tougher to get into a creative flow. But I’ve learned a simple trick to thwart my brain’s attempts at laziness.

Whenever a distracting thought comes up, I tell myself that if I still have the burning desire to check Facebook in 5 minutes, I will. Problem solved! And by the time 5 minutes have passed, I’ve completely forgotten about it.

If you’re looking for more tips on getting into a creative flow, make sure to check out this post.

Take a Break

After you’ve put in focus for a length of time, give yourself the reward of a break! Breaks are essential if you’ve been focusing intensely for a sustained period because your brain needs to recharge.

So indulge in that guilty Netflix pleasure or chat it up with a friend. You’ve earned it!

How to Improve Your Mental Focus Over Time

Now that you have a solid understanding of quick fixes for how to improve your mental focus, it’s time to switch gears to habit changes over time.

Set Goals

Although setting goals is essential, one of the more important tasks is to review your progress. Are you attaining the goals that you set for yourself? When you look back at where you spend your time and energy, are you satisfied?

There’s a ton of advice out there about setting goals. Anyone can sit down and write a list of things they would like to accomplish. But setting goals is the easy part. The hard part comes when you commit to a goal and focus on making it happen.

Although it can be difficult to acknowledge this truth, you actually can’t do it all. And depending on the size of the goal, you have to make tough choices. Pursuing one goal often means saying “no” to 26 others.

But you can accomplish great things if you align your goals and actions.

And you can dramatically improve your mental focus by gaining clarity and becoming specific about your goals. Our brains love clear-cut and measurable when it comes to goal-setting, while vague only results in mental clutter.

Therefore, if you want to improve your mental focus, consider whether your goals align with your actions. If they don’t, it’s time to make tough choices about where to devote your time and energy.

Check out this post for how to gain clarity on your life and goals.

Make a Plan

After taking time to seek clarity on your goals, it’s time to set a clear direction for where you want to go.

It may sound counterintuitive, but you only need to figure out the next step or two. You don’t need steps 3-5 or even 8-11 when you’re just getting started.

Take one step at a time. The next step will reveal itself when you’re ready for it.

Even if it’s a concise one, having a plan helps to reduce mental clutter and improve your mental focus over time. And, if nothing else, it gives you a way to track your ongoing progress.

Improve Your Mental Focus by Sleeping & Exercising

Sleep and exercise go hand-in-hand with better cognition. Each has a role in reducing stress and promoting feel-good chemicals in the brain. Both are vital components of overall health.

Since we’ve already established that specifics important, try to get at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night, pair with 150 minutes of aerobic exercise weekly, and you’ll be well on your way to improved mental focus!²

And if you’re looking for tips on improving the quality of your sleep, make sure you check out this post.

Meditate to Improve Your Mental Focus

Alongside sleep and regular exercise, meditation is rising to the top as a practice beneficial for decreasing anxiety and improving mental focus.

Although there are different types of meditation, mental focus is central to most practices. In some instances, it may be awareness of the breath. Focusing your thoughts on a specific image or feeling may form the basis of other meditative practices.

Regardless of the type, meditation also involves regularly refocusing after distraction. And being able to refocus after distraction is a beneficial skill in today’s highly distractible world!

Although research into meditation and the brain is relatively new, results have been positive. One study even demonstrated enhanced focus among people who regularly meditate compared to those who do not.³

Meditation offers a host of other benefits to those who practice it regularly. It may just become your new favorite self-care activity!

Play Games

I’m not kidding! There is research to support specific games having the ability to improve your mental focus.⁴ Mario Kart didn’t quite make the list, but if you’re a fan of sudoku and crossword puzzles, you’re in luck!

You could also try chess, word searches, and jigsaw puzzles.

These and similar activities improve both working and short-term memory while improving problem-solving skills. How amazing is that?

Stop Multitasking

It may come as somewhat of a shock, but did you know that our brains can’t multitask? Although it seems as if we can do two (or more) tasks at once, our brains can only do one. What you are experiencing when trying to do multiple tasks at once are micro shifts in attention that facilitate the completion of tasks.

But the micro shifts in attention come at the cost of both efficiency and accuracy. And I have to think that multitasking regularly prevents the deep, mental focus required for specific tasks. It encourages superficial and distracted thinking, which is the exact opposite of focus.

Multitasking is difficult for me to break free from because my work and home life are inherently filled with it. I find myself in a constant state of distraction, and finding the time and mental energy to focus is challenging.

But I’m always searching for ways to improve. And by trying each of the above strategies, I’ve improved my mental focus over time.

It’s Your Turn to Improve Your Mental Focus

And there you have it! Actionable tips you can try to improve your mental focus both in the short term and over time. Give them a try, and let me know how they work in the comments below.

If you’re looking for even more resources, check out these life-changing books!

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1. Wong, K. (2015, July 29). How Long it Takes to Get Back on Track After a Distraction. How Long It Takes to Get Back on Track After a Distraction (lifehacker.com)

2: Harvard Health Publishing. (2020, October 1). Tips to Improve Concentration. Tips to improve concentration – Harvard Health

3: Gowin, J. (2012, April 20). Brain Scans Show How Meditation Improves Mental Focus. Brain Scans Show How Meditation Improves Mental Focus | Psychology Today

4: Raypole, C. (2019, September 3). 12 Tips to Improve Your Concentration. How to Improve Concentration: 12 Science-Backed Tips, and More (healthline.com)