保持专心致志有时很难。不过，要是知道让自己分心的原因，就可能有助集中注意力。科学家研究了导致 “拖延症” 的原因，找出了一些帮助人们进入工作或学习状态的方法。

 

When you were at school, were you ever told to stop daydreaming¹ and concentrate? It was easy for your mind to wander if you weren't interested in what you were learning or if you had better things to think about. Staying focused can still be a challenge in adult life, but understanding how to do it, and knowing what is distracting you, can help.

 

Scientists have looked at what makes us procrastinate² and found a number of ways to help us stay in the zone. One of the most obvious things is eliminating noise. Research by Science Focus magazine found silence is best for concentration, or a gentle background hum and coffee shop noise is great! It also found turning off notifications on your phone, or switching it off altogether, removes a major distraction³ and helps us focus on the task at hand.

 

Another possible cure for a short attention span is brain training. Psychologists and neuroscientists are increasingly interested in our ability to knuckle⁴ down and have looked at what we can change inside our head to make us concentrate. An article for BBC Future by Caroline Williams says that "Attention Researcher Nilli Lavie of University College London has found that making a task more visually demanding… takes up more processing power and leaves the brain nothing left to process distractions⁵." So, keeping your mind busy might be the answer.

 

There are more practical tips to keeping your mind focused. These include making a list or timetable of the tasks you have to do, finding a workspace where you're not tempted⁶ to do other things, or chewing some gum! It's possible the movement in your mouth occupies parts of the brain that might otherwise get distracted.

 

But according to Science Focus magazine, distraction isn't all bad. "If we were always so focused that we never got distracted, we'd miss potential changes, such as threats, in our environment. Distraction is vital for survival."

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