The essential question that we are going to address in this blog is how we can stay committed and focused, even when we are stressed out.
Imagine, someone is talking to you; could be your child, your partner, or a colleague at work. Though you are physically present, you are not really focused on what they are saying to you. Instead, your thoughts are elsewhere, on a stressful event or a problem. You happen to miss a lot of what is being said to you because you are not entirely focussed. Let’s figure out why we lose our focus in stressful times and how we can recapture it?
Why we lose focus in the time of stress?
The answer is mostly biological, and we have developed ways to cope up with stressful situations. It has been an evolutionary process that has enabled us to survive in stressful situations, over many centuries.
When we sense some stress in our surroundings, be it a mad elephant chasing us or a bitter comment passed on to us by our boss. Both of the situations elicit the same response from your body. Emotions generated at those moments trigger something called a fight or flight response.
Changes start to begin in a part of our brain called the amygdala, which is responsible for processing emotions. The amygdala further stimulates the hypothalamus. Which then takes the entire command of the mind. Hypothalamus thus starts signaling stress signals to our whole nervous system.
Consequently, our body starts to undergo some changes. Our pupil dilates, improving our eyesight. Digestion slows down, conserving energy. Pulse and heart rate increase, making more oxygen available in our blood. This entire thing can cause jitters. Our senses get heightened, and we tend to start looking out for threats.
All of these responses have helped us survive in the wild, but in the workplace, these changes can be quite detrimental.
Ways to stay focus when stressed out
1. Use Focus Timer
To start with, you may structure the way you work. This helps you stay focus in tough times. The focus timer is based on the famous Pomodoro Technique. You make a promise to yourself to buckle down and work for twenty-five minutes straight and take a brief break of five minutes after your session. Make sure you have set a task in place ahead of time, start the sessions of twenty-five minutes each followed by a break. Repeat these sessions four to five times and then take a bigger break.
2. Tackle things one by one
Though people think that we humans are great multi-taskers but the scientific truth is that we are set up to handle a single thing at a time. Hoping from one task to another is often exhausting. When there is a shift in between two tasks, our mind gets into a ‘lag period’. It requires a lot of focus to disorient itself for the brain. Disorientation can lead to the accumulation of stressors, which are lead due to multitasking in the first place.
3. Meditate
This one is diametrically opposite of multi-tasking. It only asks you to just focus on one thing that is your current state. It just expects you to stick exclusively to the thing that is in front of you. It is a thousand-year-old practice. Experienced meditators can do it just anywhere. But to start with you will have to keep yourself away from a crowded place in order for you to practice. A good way to meditate is to focus on one thing, could be your breath. Just zoom on it and stay focussed.
4. Take a walk
This one is my favorite. The best way to collect yourself in a hard situation (in the workplace) is to take a break and go for a walk only. Nothing clears mind better than an outdoor walk. Along with the walk, you may also try above-prescribed meditation techniques by keeping your thoughts from wandering and focusing on one thing.
5. Ask for help
If you have tried all of the tips mentioned and nothing is really helping you, it could mean that you may have to seek professional help. Anxiety is a serious issue and it can negatively impact your entire life be it your marriage or employment. You can start by talking to your regular doctor about it. The doctor may prescribe you some lifestyle changes or some medications if needed, or refer you to a specialist.
In Conclusion
Stress is not all bad, just having the right amount of stress can kindle a fire within you and can rather make you more productive. A little more stress than that can just kill all of your focus. You should always keep a check on your stress level. It is all about figuring out how much stress will help you to get through a task, and let go of the remaining stress.