CONCENTRATION, says Dr Aidan Moran, refers to the ability to focus on the job at hand while ignoring distractions. It involves at least three skills: first - having a specific objective in your mind; second - selecting important information or planning helpful actions to achieve that objective; and third - holding your focus despite distractions. In other words, concentration is best when we set a goal, take appropriate actions and re focus periodically.
This sounds simple in theory but it is a lot more difficult to put into practice as anyone who has beaten a path to the kettle to avoid settling down to an unpleasant task will know. We have all had the experience of forgetting names, letting our minds wander during a meeting or reading a sentence over and over only to realise we have not registered the content. These lapses are very familiar to most of us and Aidan Moran believes we may well be our own worst enemies in the concentration game.
Our perception of our ability to concentrate is often influenced by how we think about things, he explains. So, if I convince myself that I am no good at remembering names, it becomes self fulfilling and I suffer the embarrassment of forgetting the name of someone to whom I was introduced seconds earlier.
What we need to do is to turn our worries into action steps which can help us to plan in such a way that we feel we are in control.
It is also possible to fool the mind into thinking it is interested in something. For example, instead of turning off in a boring class or meeting, start asking questions and getting involved which in effect cheats your mind into concentrating.
A good way to understand concentration is to picture it as a mental spotlight which we shine at things which interest us, he continues. Difficulties with concentration start if we switch that spotlight to factors which are either outside our control or irrelevant to the task in hand. The golden rule of expert focusing is to make sure that what you think about is specific, relevant and within your control.
Aidan Moran is a senior lecturer in psychology at UCD where he also directs the research laboratory. One of his major areas of interest is concentration as it relates to performance in sport - he is psychologist to the Irish Olympic squad.
The link between concentration and studying also interests Moran. He has just produced an audio cassette called Learn to Concentrate which offers practical techniques to overcome problems with concentration. The 70 minute tape is aimed at students, sports people and those in business. It looks at topics such as factors affecting concentration, active listening, active reading and dealing with distractions. There is also a section on how nervousness can affect concentration resulting in extremely distressing experiences such as blanking in an exam situation.
IT IS POSSIBLE to improve concentration patterns significantly by following a number of practical steps, Moran believes. For example, he is all for establishing routines, restructuring tasks to break them into manageable components, turning pressures into challenges and setting action goals.
Part of the problem with concentration is that we set ourselves the wrong sort of goals, he says. For example, we decide to work or study for a certain number of hours with the emphasis on the time (which of course goes very slowly so we are more likely to end up staring out of the window or making coffee). Instead we should focus on what we are trying to learn, such as what caused the French Revolution or what way do I need to reorganise my department in order to make it more efficient?
The bottom line is that our concentration system is very fragile and it needs constant refocusing on what is the most important issue of the moment. First, says Aidan Moran, establish a routine. There is a strong connection between the way in which people prepare for a task and how well they perform it. A prepared mind is a focused one. So the quicker someone develops a consistent routine for their work, study or sport, the easier it will be to concentrate effectively.
