You might even want to log out of your email, turn off any instant messaging apps and if youвЂ™re at home, consider unplugging the house phone. If youвЂ™re trying to focus, try turning your phone off, or putting it on вЂdo not disturbвЂ™ or вЂairplaneвЂ™ mode. ThatвЂ™s why itвЂ™s important for us to create our own boundaries. How many times have you sat down to work only to be distracted by a notification flashing on your phone, or by reading a new email thatвЂ™s just arrived? During stressful times itвЂ™s understandable that you might spend more time reading or watching the news, but this doesnвЂ™t only distract us from what we should be doing вЂ“ it can also make us feel more stressed, which in turn makes it that bit harder to focus when we do return to the task in hand.

Whether we work from home or not, interruptions are all around us. Your brain is only doing what itвЂ™s wired to do.ДЄnother reason itвЂ™s so hard to focus is because we live in a world of perpetual distraction. Struggling to focus during stressful times is completely normal. Feeling guilty about losing concentration and then beating yourself up about it can make your prefrontal cortex connections even weaker, making it even harder to focus, in a reinforcing cycle. ItвЂ™s important to understand this, because blaming yourself for not being able to focus can actually make things worse. While we may not be in any acute danger right now, our stress and worry means our prefrontal cortex may be consistently impaired and our ability to focus is affected. When it encounters stress chemicals, the prefrontal cortex weakens in order to make way for the more instinctive parts of our brain that might be able to protect us вЂ“ like the fight or flight response. The part of the brain that processes critical thinking and the ability to focus is called the prefrontal cortex. In fact, thereвЂ™s actually a scientific reason why so many of us have been finding it hard to focus since the start of the pandemic.

For many of us, disruption of our daily routines suddenly made everyday tasks feel like enormous responsibilities вЂ“ and itвЂ™s totally normal to still be feeling the aftermath of this upheaval months later. There was a 300% increase in online searches for вЂњhow to get your brain to focusвЂќ, and a 110% increase in вЂњhow to focus betterвЂќ.

An inability to focus was one of the most common challenges people faced during lockdown. If youвЂ™re feeling annoyed at yourself for being unable to concentrate, itвЂ™s important to remember that youвЂ™re certainly not alone. Wills, funeral planning & inheritance tax.Calculator: lifetime mortgage repayments.

7 ways to stay focused at work