Tag Archive for: Focus

Concentration only works if you are fit – mentally and physically. So, it’s good to free your mind from mental clutter every now and then. Maybe you have the luxury of meditating, breathing or doing mindfulness exercises before a meeting? Or a 1-minute relaxation to clear your mind before you get active?

Focus is the new “IQ”, and regular brain breaks help to sustain it. So, why not inserting the perfect pause into your daily routine? And, what makes a pause perfect anyway?

The timing

  • Multitasking is a myth. Better to focus on one task only
  • Don’t focus on a single task for more than 45 minutes. Three quarters of an hour is considered the ideal amount of time to focus on one item before our brain starts to require a break and becomes more inefficient

The duration

  • Take a break of at least 7.5 minutes

The type

  • Be strict about what you do during your pause
  • Don’t spend it staying at the same (work)place
  • Change the scenery: Go for a walk – outside (yes, even if it’s cold or rainy!)
  • Don’t take your mobile phone with you
  • Don’t fill the pause with ‘brain-consuming’ activities, such as reading the newspaper or watching the news. Give the brain room to muse
  • Consider using the Pomodoro technique. Invented by Francesco Cirillo as a time management tool, the pomodoro stands for the kitchen timer with which Cirillo divided the working day into time blocks of 25 minutes, delimited by breaks of 5 minutes. A simple, but effective method to work fully focused in certain periods, to then regularly clear your head completely and start the next period fresh.

The cold

  • Join a Wim Hof Training and step into an ice bath. Take it from me – this is a full immersion pause and does miracles to your ability to focus!