How To Train Your Brain To Achieve Laser-Like Focus

Every single day, our brains produce up to 700 new neurons regardless of our age. Best of all, those cells can reinforce whatever mental capacity we want if we know how to train.

Imagine the potential.

This is called neuroplasticity. Put simply, it’s the brain’s ability to continue growing and adapting despite aging. According to Marian Diamond, one of the founders of modern neuroscience, “with proper stimulation and an enriched environment, the human brain can continue to develop at any age.”

Neuroplasticity mixed with proper training is how my father-in-law recovered most of his mental activity after a brain stroke a decade ago. It’s how Joshua Foer went from a struggling student to the champion of the 2006 USA Memory Championship.

It’s how anyone can develop laser-like focus to fend off distractions and make every second of every working moment count.

By engaging in science-backed practices that stimulate the prefrontal cortex, the brain area responsible for focus, we can strengthen our attention span and get things done. Here’s how:

The Prefrontal Cortex: The Key To Focus

The brain has four main regions or lobes: frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital. The last two perceive our surroundings, whereas the first two — where the prefrontal cortex is located — integrate and analyze the sensory information before making decisions.

In his book, Memory Rescue: Supercharge Your Brain, Reverse Memory Loss, and Remember What Matters Most, New York Times Bestselling author Dr. Daniel Amen refers to the prefrontal cortex as the brain’s CEO as it “enables us to learn from our mistakes and make plans.” Moreover, it has a central role in our ability to focus.

When it’s properly stimulated, we’re organized, goal-oriented, thoughtful, empathetic, and emotionally intelligent. We avoid saying or doing idiotic things. We avoid falling prey to the countless distractions in our modern world. Most importantly, we find it easier to focus.

However, the prefrontal cortex can weaken like any muscle, leading to impulsivity, disorganization, poor time management, lack of empathy, among others.

For example, though I prided myself in my ability to concentrate through college, after I graduated, I started multitasking, checking social media whenever I wanted, and letting anyone immediate access to my attention.

The result? My focus dimmed. At work, I couldn’t stick to a task for longer than fifteen minutes without refreshing my inbox. At home, I could no longer write for hours as I did before. I couldn’t even watch an entire TV episode without checking my phone.

Though I still have plenty of room for improvement, by implementing the following science-backed practices that target the prefrontal cortex and the ability to focus, I can now reach a deep work state easier than before. In turn, this has helped me create better presentations at work and write more and faster at home.

Hopefully, you’ll experience similar benefits.

How To Train Your Brain’s CEO

Exercising your brain goes beyond what you do at work. To reap the full benefits of neuroplasticity, consider including in your daily life both non-work and work-related practices. The former will strengthen your prefrontal cortex as a whole; the latter will hone in on your ability to focus and avoid distractions.

Non-work related practices (based on Dr. Amen’s book):

Language games such as Scrabble and Boggle.

Crossword puzzles.

Speech and debate classes or any other public speaking activities.

Strategy games such as Risk, chess, and Catan.

Prayer and meditation. According to Dr. Amen, “it may be the most powerful prefrontal cortex booster of all. It improves focus, executive function, judgment, and impulse control.”

Weight training combined with aerobic activity (brisk walking). Even better, combine physical activity with mental exercises.

Learning to play a new musical instrument.

Learning memory exercises like those Joshua Foer shares in his book, Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything.

Work-specific practices (based on Cal Newport’s famous book, Deep Work):

Productive meditation. According to Cal Newport, this type of meditation is when you “take a period in which you’re occupied physically but not mentally — walking, jogging, driving, showering — and focus your attention on a single well-defined professional problem. As in mindfulness meditation, you must continue to bring your attention back to the problem when it wanders or stalls.”

Pomodoro technique. Though trite, working with intervals of deep work and rest helps us be more productive — and develop future focus.

Environment design. Select a “focus place” you can go to whenever you need to concentrate and rearrange it so that distractions are impossible. For example, I’ve established a rule at home. Whenever the living room — where I write — is closed, my husband can’t enter unless there’s an emergency. Other examples include disabling phone notifications, using noise-canceling headphones, blocking the internet, etc.

Challenging goals. Be specific about what you want to achieve when you sit down to focus. These tasks should be mentally taxing, like writing an article, brainstorming a new product idea, or creating a pitch presentation for potential clients.

Scheduled distractions. Don’t just plan when you’ll do focused work. Arrange times to use social media or other distractions. Note: You can have as many distraction windows as you want. What matters is that you avoid them outside of those periods.

With these practices, you can slowly strengthen your ability to focus. However, remember to rest. Remember that downtime is as important — if not more — when building muscle.

In a world filled with distractions, the ability to focus has become more valuable than ever — especially for people who want to achieve a healthy work-life balance. After all, by squeezing the hours spent at work, we can engage in guilt-free, well-deserved rest.

So why not try one of the above-mentioned practices?

Though some people have a bigger innate capacity for concentration than others, though the amount of neurons produced in the brain varies per person, everyone can reap the benefits of neuroplasticity to improve their focus. It’s just a matter of proper training.

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