Increasing Focus and Mastering Time: 3 Traits of Successful People

Meditation has amazing benefits. Recently, I heard of some Tibetan monks who can raise their body temperatures by as much as 17 degrees Fahrenheit and survive extremely cold temperatures without clothes. They do this solely on the basis of intense focus and extreme concentration.

You will be surprised to know that highly successful people can also achieve similar feats, only they do it to survive extreme competition and not the cold. The thing with successful people is that they do the same things that everyone else does. The only difference is that they are able to take it to the next level.

They do it on the basis of only one trait: “Focus”.

Remember that focus is not an idea. It is not something like when you say, “Ok now I know where I was wrong and will keep that in mind for future.” It is something that takes time and effort to develop. Today we will talk of things that highly successful people do to maintain focus in their lives.

The Time Block Method

Learning to develop focus begins by thinking straight and clear. Distractions are part and parcel of our mental activity. Thoughts that have no meaning come and go at will. The best way to avoid them is by keeping our priorities clear and simple.

The time block method begins by making a schedule of important activities that you need to perform for the day and then focusing only on them. It is like putting a do not disturb sign everywhere around us. You are only available for important issues, else you are deeply absorbed in whatever you are doing.

This step is important when you work as a knowledge worker. Examples include engineers, software developers, scientists, lawyers, architects, physicians, accountants and variety of other professionals.

The Use of 90 Minute Focus Sessions

This method which is backed up by science says that human mind shows peaks and bottoms of high and low mental activity. And this cycle repeats on a 90 minute period. To make sense out of it, you can say that every 90 minutes of intense mental activity is followed by 20 minutes of mental downtime.

The good thing is that with time and practice one can improve the duration of this cycle. Some people have greater than 180-minute cycles. This makes them highly productive.

“Mozart” the great musician of the 18th century composed brilliant music all day long using this same technique. He never got tired or bored doing it and this was what made him a genius. There are lot more examples like this and many prolific writers, painters and artists are known to exploit the merits of this technique.

Meditation

Peace and meditation go together. When you are at peace you become emotionally sensible. You don’t react to things abruptly, which is a sign of maturity. You become sensible in your daily negotiations. You think straight and are able to concentrate better to what is being said. Your mind becomes free from unwanted thoughts that restrict your train of thought. And thus you reach better conclusions and judgments.

There are a lot of books on meditation that you can read. The thing is to inculcate it as a part of your daily routine. That’s where successful people shine and merit. Examples include Jeff Weiner (CEO LinkedIn), Arianna Huffington (Founder Huffington Post), Oprah Winfrey, Hugh Jackman and many more.

Focus and general intelligence are directly linked with each other. You may even be born with a talent or natural bent for something. But, at the same time you can master a skill, that you may not be born with, by dedicating a part of your life to it. In both the cases focus cannot be dispensed with if you want to make it to the top.

To keep things inspirational let’s end the blog with a following quote by Bruce Lee: “The successful warrior is the average man with a laser like focus.”

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Vartika Kashyap is a seasoned marketing professional who is an expert in digital marketing and entrepreneurship. She’s been featured among LinkedIn’s Top Voices for the year 2016. She currently runs the marketing team at ProofHub — a project management software for teams of all sizes. Connect with Vartika on LinkedIn, Medium and Twitter.

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Originally published on Your Story