Mental focus is the ability to direct sufficient mental effort to relevant information when needed. It is important for our wellbeing as it allows us to complete relevant tasks, acquire new information, come out on top during competition, and achieve important goals.

Staying focused is often a challenge, but it can be especially difficult when there are perpetual distractions on offer. Today’s world of constant connection means diversions are never more than a few clicks away, and modern society is finding it trickier than ever to stay on task. While this may seem like little more than a nuisance with everyday tasks, how much we are able to stay focused can have larger consequences when it comes to setting and following through on our life goals.

Luckily, focus can be thought of as a mental muscle: the more effort you put in, the more it will improve. If you are wanting to explore how to stay focused on your goals, here are a few strategies that may help.

Assess Your General Focus Levels

Taking time to assess your mental focus can help you to identify whether or not your concentration levels need some improvement. If you find it easy to stay alert, you set goals and break then up into manageable chunks of work, and you take short breaks between tasks, your focus is likely to be good. If you often find yourself daydreaming, you battle to tune out distractions and you regularly lose track of your progress, your focus levels may need work.

Some contributing factors to poor focus could include being hungry, not having enough quality sleep, feeling stressed, worried or anxious, or having too many distractions in your immediate environment. If you find that you are regularly battling to stay engaged in important tasks, there may be an underlying condition contributing to your lack of focus.

Get Into the No-Distraction Zone

No matter the scale of your goals, you need to create an environment and implement daily habits that support you staying focused. Here are a few simple yet effective strategies to support your concentration efforts:

• Plan your day in advance. Many people start their morning by working through a back log of emails and figuring out which tasks are most important for the day ahead. This is a wasted opportunity to dive into important tasks with a fresh and focused mind. Make a plan for your work day the night before, and enjoy putting your brain to better use right away when you sit down to work in the morning.
• Create a morning routine that you repeat daily to prime your focus. This could include simple tasks such as making the bed, stretching and preparing coffee, or following a 10-minute meditation and working out.
• Start the day off with a healthy breakfast of “brain foods”, including a balance of lean proteins, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats. Fresh fruit, veggies, nuts and seeds make great snacks between meals. Don’t forget to stay hydrated as well.
• Ensure you have a quiet area to conduct your work undisturbed. Keep the door to this area closed if possible, and ask loved ones not to disturb you for a certain period of time. If you are in an office environment, try wearing noise-cancelling headphones that not only reduce sound, but also let colleagues know you would not like to be disturbed.
• Keep your work space and immediate environment uncluttered and as plain as possible.
• Play calm or ambient instrumental music or white noise that you don’t notice much as you work.
• Close out of programs or apps on your computer that aren’t essential, and turn off push notifications on your phone. You can block-check emails and important notifications at dedicated times throughout the day between completing tasks.
• Consider putting a lock on social media. These apps are designed to pull our focus and encourage perpetual browsing. There are a handful of social media blocking apps that keep you locked out for certain lengths of time, helping you stick to the task at hand without the promise of distraction at your fingertips.

Find Out What Motivates You

When considering how to stay focused on your goals, it is helpful to understand the motivators that are most effective for your personality.

Incentive-based motivation involves assigning yourself rewards after reaching certain milestones. E.g. treating yourself to a weekend away after a good month of sales.

Motivation based on achievement would include the possibility of achieving something as a result of your work. E.g. choosing work roles that offer promotions and the opportunity to climb a career ladder.

While fear-based motivation has negative connotations, it can prove effective in helping you to stay on task. E.g. double checking your work due to fear of failure in a new job role. It should not, however, be used as a long-term strategy, as it can lead to unhealthy levels of stress.

Experimenting with different types of motivators can help you to develop an internal drive that keeps you on track towards your goals.

Determine Your “Why”

Learning how to stay focused on your goals involves determining your “why” – why certain projects, tasks, hobbies or habits are important to you – and help to fulfil a bigger picture of what you want for your life.

Aligning your life goals with your core values allows you to experience greater feelings of happiness and fulfilment when you achieve them. Ensuring that your daily responsibilities are connected to your greater purpose therefore provides a powerful internal motivation that is stronger than simply working for a pay check: it is easier to keep working on a project when you are regularly reminded of how it will benefit you in the bigger picture.

Write Down Your Goals

When considering how to stay focused on your goals, it is helpful to have them written down. Not only does this supply you with a visual reminder of your goals that you can regularly revert back to, but it also allows you to formulate a written action plan of how to achieve them.

Setting SMART goals is widely renowned as an effective game plan when exploring how to stay focused on your goals.

SMART goals are:

Specific: Considering your goal in quantifiable or targeted ways will help shine a spotlight on exactly what you want to accomplish. E.g. “I want to get better at running” could be improved to “I’d like to complete a half marathon”.

Measurable: Applying methods that allow you to measure your progress helps to motivate you and keep you accountable.

Achievable: It is important to set realistic goals that you have the resources and time to work towards. E.g. perhaps “I’d like to earn six figures” is not likely in your career trajectory, but “I want to double my salary in two years” is within reach.

Relevant: While you don’t necessarily have to rule out left-field goals (e.g. learning how to play an instrument if you don’t think of yourself as musical), it helps to keep goals aligned with your values, dreams and ambitions to guarantee motivation and fulfilment.

Time-based: Goals that are time-based have specific deadlines. These can be short-term or long-term, and should have realistic milestones that you can adjust as needed.

The next point outlines this in more detail, explaining how to stay focused on your goals by managing your time.

Create a Time-Specific Plan

Creating a to-do list is only the first step in keeping you on track. Time management is a valuable skill that can bolster efficiency. Here are a number of time-relevant strategies to help get you closer to your goals:

• Do a time audit. Identifying how many hours you spend working, commuting, doing housework or enjoying leisure activities will help you realistically map out how much time you have available to focus on your goals, as well as pinpoint areas you could improve upon. E.g. reducing time spent scrolling through social media while working on a deadline, or pushing dinner back by 30 minutes each evening if you find yourself unproductive after eating.
• Scheduling your time is one way of guaranteeing that you put appropriate effort into working towards your goal. Blocking out patches of time daily, weekly or monthly to dedicate to specific tasks could help you to better prioritize working on specific goals.
• Then, consider setting milestones to identify smaller goals that set you on a trajectory towards a larger achievement. These help you stay focused by giving you bite-sized, realistic targets to work on, and provide regular opportunities for feelings of accomplishment that keep you motivated to continue moving forward.
• Identify the tasks on your to-do list each day that are the most important to make progress towards your goal. Making it a priority to get these tasks out of the way will help you keep your focus and ensure you make daily progress towards your chosen outcome.
  

Evaluate Your Progress

Periodically reviewing progress made towards your goals offers benefits that are two-fold: it supplies you with a sense of achievement for the tasks you’ve completed so far, reinforcing productive behavior; plus, taking the time to check for weak spots or identify successful strategies helps you to modify your game plan as needed.

Stick With Tasks to Completion

It may sound obvious, but finishing tasks is crucial for working towards your goals. Having a clear idea on what the objective of each task is and what it entails will ensure you keep working towards it. Celebrating every task completion with a reward of some sort, however small, will also provide positive reinforcement to continue working. It also assists with time management, by drawing to your attention the length of time each task takes to complete.

Try a Goal-Tracking App

Technology can help you stay on top of your goals by organizing and automating your workload. Goal-tracking apps can break down ambitious goals into reasonably sized tasks, helping you to methodically work through your to-do list. These types of apps also serve as excellent motivators, reminding you daily about the goals you want to achieve.

Review Your Goals Daily

Perhaps most important of all when exploring how to stay focused on your goals is to ensure you are still passionate about the targets you have set. Regular check-ins will keep you committed to progress, as well as create a habit of putting your goals at the forefront of your mind each day. This helps you prioritize tasks that are aligned with your goals, resist distractions, and keep you alert to relevant opportunities that may further your progress.

Share Your Commitment to Your Goals

Sharing your goals and intentions with others can have a positive effect on your productivity. Telling others what you hope to achieve helps keep you accountable, plus it helps you find and align with others who are chasing similar outcomes. Surrounding yourself with those who motivate or positively influence you can have a supportive effect when considering how to stay focused on your goals.

Get a Mentor (or Many)

With the above in mind, it is important to remember that a support system is essential for bringing your dreams to life. And as much as family, friends and like-minded individuals can bolster your progress and keep you accountable, you will also benefit from the input of mentors or those with advanced skills. Seek out individuals, companies or coaches that offer superior insight or resources to contribute towards your progress.

Visualize the Results

Another key motivator for how to stay focused on your goals is to visualize the outcome. Actively imagining how it will feel to reach your goal – such as how it will benefit you, the level of pride and accomplishment you’ll experience, and the reinforcement of confidence it will give you in your own abilities. Thinking about this outcome serves as ongoing encouragement to keep working, particularly in the face of obstacles or setbacks.

Make it a Mantra

Putting words to your desires serves as a powerful way to hone your focus and prioritize goal-relevant tasks. It will help to add meaning to your actions – giving the task at hand more philosophical clout. It can also help make your goal sound more real and attainable. e.g. “I am going to complete this task and get one day closer to the life of my dreams”. Speaking your goals or mantras aloud is also thought to positively impact your physiology, taking the idea of a goal and bringing it closer to reality. It also acts as a powerful reset if you find your focus waning.

Distractions can range from irritating to dangerous when it comes to following through on important tasks. Taking control of how to stay focused on your goals can have a profound impact on your productivity, happiness and long-term progress. Start small by choosing just a few of the tips discussed above to try out. Making consistent, incremental changes to hone in on your concentration will help you build healthier daily habits that become second-nature over time. In this way, you can start to take more control over your focus and therefore your output, giving more attention to the things that matter and getting closer towards realizing your goals.