7 steps to concentrate better
Concentration is focus of the mind, the ability to hold the awareness of your mind on one point, one place, without wavering. It can be the ability to release one’s thoughts and emotions from all other interests and involvements.
It’s been said that the greatest power of the human mind is its ability to focus on one thing for an extended period. If you’ve ever held a magnifying glass in the sun, you know how scattered sunlight can be focused to start a fire. Imagine if we could concentrate your brain power into one bright beam and focus it like a laser on whatever we wish to accomplish.
But most of us struggle to concentrate. And when we can’t concentrate, everything we do is harder and takes longer than we like. We may be looking to improve our concentration to perform better at work, to ace our exams, to increase reading comprehension, or simply to make everyday life easier.
Here we aim on the ways on how to improve concentration and focus by removing distractions, properly nourishing your brain, and using some simple concentration techniques.
We need to understand that being easily distracted isn’t all bad. In fact, in the right circumstances, it can help you survive. But concentrating at the task you are doing at the correct time makes it easier to complete the work and makes the work effective.
One of the worst things you can do for your concentration and focus is to multitask. We don’t do several things at once; our brain quickly toggles back and forth between tasks.
We can do unconscious tasks such as walk and talk at the same time, but once it gets more complicated than that, we are sacrificing the efficiency of one task for another.
Some people need complete silence while others concentrate better in the buzz of their favorite coffee shop. We aim to help the students understand the best way they can concentrate and help them keep the track of how they are getting the goals achieved and what adjustments need to be made along the way.
Few other techniques for concentrating better are:
Start assignments with some curiosity about the material and a positive attitude toward learning.
- Designate a place where you go only to study. Use proper lighting.
- Use “active study” techniques: sit straight in a chair at a desk, start out with questions about the material, outline chapters, underline key phrases after reading a section, write notes in margins, ask yourself what you have learned.
- Divide your work into smaller manageable tasks that can be completed in a short period of time. Push yourself to complete one small task, then move on to the next task. Focus on one small task at a time.
- Use times of peak alertness for studying difficult or less interesting topics. When you are tired or hungry concentration will be lowered.
- When your mind starts to wander come up with some cue words to say to yourself (e.g., “Focus.” “Get back on task.”) to focus your concentration again.
- Take breaks when you have completed tasks or when you feel concentration has decreased. Breaks should be approximately 10-15 minutes.
- If you have other assignments or issues on your mind write them down on a “to do” list or take a small step to deal with them. Then get back to focusing on the task at hand.
These are a few ways to improve concentration. Few other techniques to improve concentration is by understanding our thoughts and prioritizing them, by listing them down on a paper or thought blocking. It’s very important to understand and be aware of thoughts and things that cause distraction. Being able to understand the cause of distraction helps concentrate better and the output is much more effective.
Shruti Patwari
Development Coach
References:
https://www.ccri.edu/advising/success_links/concentration.html
https://www.successconsciousness.com/blog/concentration-mind-power/the-importance-of-concentration/
https://www.k-state.edu/counseling/topics/career/concentr.html
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/memory-medic/201102/12-ways-improve-concentration
https://www.interactiontalks.com/tips-for-improving-concentration-for-high-school-students/
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Home to Hostel – Tips to deal with changes
It can be difficult, as even positive life transitions tend to cause some stress. Over the course of a lifetime, a person can expect to experience a significant amount of change. Some of these changes, such as hostel, relocation and new college are generally positive, although they may be accompanied by their own unique stressors and may cause a significant amount of stress.
Certain changes, such as entering school, staying in a hostel, can often be exciting, even when they cause some amount of stress, because they are generally considered to be positive changes. Many people look forward to obtaining a degree, rising in their chosen field, or having a home and family.
Changes, and especially difficult changes, can influence personal growth, and dealing with a change successfully may leave one stronger, more confident, and better prepared for what comes next in life. In other words, even those changes that are neither expected nor wanted might still produce some beneficial outcome.
Disha program aims at helping the students understand that not all changes are negative and if dealt effectively can help in building a positive and strong self. It also helps in building resilience and self-concept. As the environment is new and the students are trying to settle in and find their comfort zone or are trying to adjust in the given surrounding it might affect them personally and cause them a lot of stress, helping them understand and acknowledge the change helps in making them understand that’s it’s just a part of life and building support group and trying to adopt the situation in a constructive way will help them build themselves better.
Shruti Patwari
Development Coach
References:
https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/issues/change
https://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/anxiety-schmanxiety/2015/07/facing-change-anxiety-can-be-related-to-adjustment-disorder/
https://www.changeways.com/resources/otherissues/adjustmentlifechange/adjustmentlifechange.html
http://www.ird.govt.nz/gst/additional-calcs/change-adjust/adjust-change/adjust-change-in-use.html
Know yourself better
Self-concept is an understanding we have of ourself that’s based on our personal experiences, body image, our thoughts, beliefs about our personality traits, physical characteristics, abilities, values, goals, roles, as well as the knowledge that we exist as individuals and how we tend to label yourself in various situations.
Rosenberg defines the self-concept broadly as “the totality of an individual’s thoughts and feelings having reference to himself as an object”. A more specific definition is provided by Turner: “Typically my self-conception is a vague but vitally felt idea of what I am like in my best moments, of what I am striving toward and have some encouragement to believe I can achieve, or of what I can do when the situation supplies incentives for unqualified effort.
In childhood the Self-Concept tends to be tied to concrete or physical things like looks, items and skill levels. As the child grows, they learn about things like intrinsic (inner) characteristics and psychological differences due to the fact that they now have a larger network of peers and mentors to compare themselves with. Later in life (teenager-adulthood) the self-concept changes into a more nebulous idea that is organized by what is relevant to the individual.
Self-Concept is an everchanging concept depending on the person because our feelings, personal belief systems and attitude can change when new information is shown to us.
Adolescence is a period of life in which the sense of ‘self’ changes profoundly.
A healthy self-concept always helps us get ahead in life. It allows us to maximize our potential and get the most from our strengths, talents, and abilities. On the other hand, a weak self-concept will hinder our progress. In fact, a fragile self-concept will most likely lead to self-sabotaging behavior. As a result, we struggle to follow through with our actions.
Disha Program aims at helping them understand themselves and their potentials. Its to help them reach their maximum best output and keep growing and improving their self-concept as they encounter new situations and challenges in their day to day lives. Its for them to realize their potential and see how much they have been using it in their daily lives. It also helps them come to an understanding about how they can improve on few strengths and weaknesses they are experiencing.
We aim to ensure that everyone understands that building a healthy and robust self-concept no doubt takes some work and consistent effort. In fact, it takes time. This isn’t something that you can build or transform overnight. Likewise, it isn’t something that you work through once and then forget about for the rest of your life.
Transforming your self-concept is something that you need to work on consistently over time. It’s something that must continuously change and evolve as you reach new milestones along your life’s journey.
However, this journey certainly doesn’t need to be difficult. There is no need to complete this process in one go but gradually attain it.
Shruti Patwari
Development Coach
References:
https://opentextbc.ca/socialpsychology/chapter/the-cognitive-self-the-self-concept/
https://blog.iqmatrix.com/self-concept
https://psychcentral.com/encyclopedia/self-concept/
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ME versus WE: How to deal with my new environment
It can be difficult, as even positive life transitions tend to cause some stress. Over the course of a lifetime, a person can expect to experience a significant amount of change. Some of these changes, such as hostel, relocation and new college are generally positive, although they may be accompanied by their own unique stressors and may cause a significant amount of stress.
Certain changes, such as entering school, staying in a hostel, can often be exciting, even when they cause some amount of stress, because they are generally considered to be positive changes. Many people look forward to obtaining a degree, rising in their chosen field, or having a home and family.
Bottom of Form
Changes, and especially difficult changes, can influence personal growth, and dealing with a change successfully may leave one stronger, more confident, and better prepared for what comes next in life. In other words, even those changes that are neither expected nor wanted might still produce some beneficial outcome.
Disha Program aims at helping the students understand that not all changes are negative and if dealt effectively can help in building a positive and strong self. It also helps in building resilience and self-concept. As the environment is new and the students are trying to settle in and find their comfort zone or are trying to adjust in the given surrounding it might affect them personally and cause them a lot of stress, helping them understand and acknowledge the change helps in making them understand that’s it’s just a part of life and building support group and trying to adopt the situation in a constructive way will help them build themselves better.
Shruti Patwari
Development Coach
References:
https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/issues/change
https://www.changeways.com/resources/otherissues/adjustmentlifechange/adjustmentlifechange.html
http://www.ird.govt.nz/gst/additional-calcs/change-adjust/adjust-change/adjust-change-in-use.html
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Formula for cracking the competition
Formula for cracking the competition – “challenge yourself, compete with yourself”
“The principle is competing against yourself. It’s about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before.” ~ Steve Young
A “competition,” by its very nature, is what psychologists call an “extrinsic incentive.” Extrinsic simply means that the motivation to adopt a behaviour to get into the goal state. It refers to a decision which is sourced externally rather than internally (e.g., when we do something in order to get a reward for it)
We all know that Life is a competition, but it’s not a race against anyone else. Rather, the real journey is only against our own self and our unrealized potential. There is nothing to gain by competing with others. We will constantly be fighting an uphill battle if we try to compete with others. As a result, time and resources will be wasted. We tend to lose the plot the day we live our life to impress others, the day our focus shifts from cause towards applause; from expressing to impressing. Our efforts produce better results when we do not anticipate applause or appreciation. When we compete against other people, it’s like we tend to judge ourselves based on their values and metrics. Noted problem with this is that even if we win, we only do something that’s important to the competitor, not for us. The best way to handle it is by taking competition as the by-product of our work and not its goal. We must be motivated by the aim to achieve other than competing with others.
So, the only one we should be competing is with our own self. If we always strive to do better we will be able to accomplish more which would help us in reaching our goals. It will benefit us far more than trying to beat others. What matters is all about a clear life plan, hard work and patience to achieve our goal state.
As students, how often do we challenge ourselves, pushing the boundaries and getting out of our comfort zone? That’s very rare and we hardly do it in our day to day life as we give our way to the already set rat race. By evaluating on the basis of their own personal gains, we can give everyone an opportunity to succeed. In fact, since the weakest students have the most room for improvement; this procedure can even give an advantage to the very students who are usually at a disadvantage (Vockell, 2011).
Some of the principles that pave the way to healthy self-competition are as follows-
Revisit the past– Analyzing previous work in mind and setting our own targets to exceed the quality of content we produced previously would help in reaching new heights. For that purpose, we need to also set our own milestones. We should realize our inner capabilities, potentials and set own standards against them.
Believe in Yourself– Believing in our capability, our calibre and our performance; working our way hard enough; setting goals that we think we should achieve not what we think we can achieve and start competing with ourselves every single day will definitely serve the purpose.
Progress Report– Setting small milestone goals and measuring our progress can be of great help. Reminding ourselves that it is about being better than we were the day before, would set an example and actually put us in the framework of self-improvement. Practising as if we are the worst and competing as if we are the best will definitely result in good progress.
1% Kaizen effect – Kaizen is a Japanese term for continuous improvement. To go with the fact, that there is always a room for improvement and a way to do things better, Kaizen approach can show the way to continuous improvement and self-development. Continuous improvement would help the student in becoming a better person every day.
Every time we think of Competition, we should remember these principles. When there is a healthy competition, we come out to play and play to win. In fact, if there were no competition the world would have come to a standstill.
Darshana Baruah
Development Coach
References
- Blogs
- I’m not in competition with anybody but myself. My goal is to beat my last performance.
https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/im-not-in-competition-with-anybody-but-myself-my-goal-is-to-beat-my-last-performance - Catch the Olympic Spirit – Challenge Yourself
http://www.unconventionalsustainability.com/blog/olympic-challenge - Stop Comparing Yourself to Others: An Alternative to Competing with People.
https://tinybuddha.com/blog/stop-comparing-yourself-to-others/ - Competing against yourself.
http://www.misswhoo.com/soul-food/2014/4/5/competing-against-yourself#.WsMc84hubIU - Finding the beauty in every attempt.
http://blog.brookesnow.com/compete/
- Academic articles
- The power of competition: Effects of social motivation on attention, sustained physical effort, and learning.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4554955/ - The Benefits of Feeling Competitive.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/compassion-matters/201309/the-benefits-feeling-competitive - Comparing yourself to others may get you nowhere but competing with yourself will.
https://www.healthy-magazine.co.uk/5-reasons-embrace-competitive-side/ - How to compete against yourself: Don’t do your best, do better than your personal average.
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/how-to-compete-against-yourself-dont-do-your-best-do-better-than-your-personal-average/
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Parent’s Session
Parent session in Pragathi Nagar campus.
The Crisis called “Over parenting”
“The way we treat our children directly impacts what they believe about themselves.”
– Ariadne Brill, Parenting Educator
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, “Over parenting” is defined as an act of excessive involvement by parents in the lives of their children, so that they try to help with or control everything that happens to the child. As parents everyone have an innate impulse to ensure the child’s comfort and prosperity. But unfortunately, it often results in overindulgence in the child’s life. There is a strong distinction between being a proactive parent and being an overly involved parent. Parents, in trying to be supportive and protective they end up micro-managing the kid’s actions.
Indeed, it is very important for a parent to build a close emotional bond with the kid. Like the British writer CS Lewis said “Children are not a distraction from more important work. They are the most important work”. Parents will have to spend more time with their kids, help them take decisions, be supportive during hard times and guide them through morals and values. But the problem arises when they overdo their role and completely refute the child’s agency and capability to do things and take decisions.
Perhaps experiences of growing up through hard times, make parents develop their own ideas of how they want to raise their children. They either impose their aspirations on their kids or are just over-protective and overly-involved over their child’s actions. It is a very natural desire of every parent wanting their child to be safe and prosperous in all the facets of his/her life. So, they ensure that they provide the child everything as best as they can and be cautious that he/she stays away from any harm. Apparently, this nature to over-parent stems from a certain anxiety of the parent which makes them intolerant of not being able to witness the child fail or get hurt.
The major harm of over parenting is hurting the child’s confidence to perceive his/her ability to do things. While teaching the kid to ride a bicycle, to cross a road, to buy groceries, to pay bills, to choose cloths, to identify skills, to build a science project etc. is the responsibility of a parent, over indulging in every move of the kid would rather break his/her confidence making them feel that they aren’t competent enough to do these things. For instance, a parent choosing to escort the kid daily when he/she is riding a bicycle is actually an act of undermining to kid’s capability to ride safely and independently. While helping the kid make right decisions is the responsibility of the parent, they should also make sure that the kid reaches his/her fullest potential by exploring new ideas, ways and opportunities. This is not possible by undermining the kid’s confidence and capability to make wise decisions independently.
Being overprotective might help the kid stay away from harm and prevent him/her from committing any mistake. But failure teaches them a lot as on how to do things better and act wiser from the experiences gained. This also refrains the child from facing the consequences of his/her own behavior. At times letting a child commit mistakes, fail and get hurt, is way to help him/her grow more productively as an adult.
This digital world has taught our kids how to aspire to be free. This aspiration might not always be a wrong thing, as long as it is being monitored by the parents. Kids do deserve to be treated with respect considering their individual potential by parents and others. For a child to confidently act and independently move ahead, parents are expected to provide them their love, support and guidance. Happy Parenting!
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