10 Exercises to Improve Concentration (Children and Adults)

In this article I will explain 10 exercises to improve concentration mental in children, adolescents, adults and the elderly. Concentration is like a muscle, it can be trained and it is possible to gradually acquire the necessary skills to be focused on the things you do and avoid distraction.

Before we start to see the exercises I would like us to make a brief review about what concentration is, so that the activities are understood more clearly.

Concentration is a cognitive skill, which although it may seem strange, is done through reasoning. This cognitive activity consists of voluntarily focusing our attention on a specific aspect, and being able to maintain it.

That is to say: concentration allows us to "put" information into our head so that all our attention is focused on a specific objective, and we are not distracted by other types of information..

Article index

• 1 Why is it so important to focus?
• 2 10 Exercises to train mental concentration
  • 2.1 1. Get organized before
  • 2.2 2. Focus on one thing at a time
  • 2.3 3. Relax
  • 2.4 4. Use the numbers
  • 2.5 5. Train your attention
  • 2.6 6. A moment of mindfulness
  • 2.7 7. Conscious observation
  • 2.8 8. The mental image
  • 2.9 9. Expression of our memories
  • 2.10 10. Focus on your day
• 3 References

Why is it so important to focus?

Concentration is possibly the most useful ability that the human being possesses. When we have a good capacity for concentration, we are able to work or study much more effectively, be more productive and also allow us to carry out activities in a more relaxed and pleasant way..

When we are carrying out a task and we get distracted, it is estimated that it takes an average of 20 to 25 minutes to be able to focus on what we were doing again, which is a fairly high expenditure of time and effort.

I suppose you will agree with me that it is much more useful and beneficial to perform tasks in a concentrated way than to do them with distractions. However, today we have a permanent amount of stimuli around us that can incite us to distraction.

And what happens? Well, little by little we are getting used to paying attention to these distractions so we lose our ability to concentrate. So that this does not happen to us, it is convenient to train our concentration. 

10 Exercises to train mental concentration

1. Get organized before

The first of all and possibly the most important, more than an exercise that can help us improve our concentration, it is a requirement that we must meet if we want to have this ability..

And yes, this first requirement, although we may not like it very much, is the organization. This organization involves two different aspects:

Distraction-free environment:

No matter how well trained you have your concentration, if you try to concentrate in an environment full of stimuli that can distract you, you will not be able to concentrate as much as possible on the task you want to do..

Before starting, try to have an orderly environment without distractions: keep the door closed, the mobile phone in silence, your favorite internet pages closed, etc..

Structure the tasks:

If you want to concentrate but do not know exactly what you are doing, in what order or in what way, the concentration that you apply to the tasks you are
doing it will be less useful, since it will not be a concentration aimed at a specific activity.

Before starting, try to write down on a piece of paper what are the tasks you will do, how you will do them and in what order. In this way you can use your concentration in a structured way.

2. Focus on one thing at a time

One of the problems that often prevent us from having the ability to concentrate that we would like is having multiple thoughts in our head and not being able to focus on just one.

When this happens, our ability to concentrate is noticeably reduced since our brain is not designed to be able to concentrate on multiple tasks or thoughts at the same time..

Therefore, it is as important to acquire a good capacity for concentration as it is to be able to apply that capacity to concrete facts and eliminate the multiplicity of thoughts in our mind..

To acquire this ability to extract a specific thought, an exercise that can help us many is the following: Sit in a chair, and when you are relaxed, among all the thoughts that come to your head, choose only one.

The thought you choose can be anyone. For example: the chat you had with your coworker this morning, the photos your niece showed you last week or the soccer game you saw on Saturday.

Once you've chosen it, spend about 5 minutes thinking about it and nothing else. If you do this exercise regularly, you will get used to being able to focus your attention on a single thought when necessary and improving your concentration will be easier..

3. Relax

Many times what hinders our ability to concentrate are states of anxiety, nervousness or the inability to acquire tranquility when performing a task.

In order to concentrate properly, it is convenient to have a relaxed state and avoid excessive stress. If you notice that stress or anxiety interferes with your ability to concentrate, you can do the following deep breathing exercise:

• Sit comfortably, gently close your eyes, and place your right hand on your abdomen.
• Breathe in through your nose and breathe out through your nose or mouth.
• Take a slow breath in through your nose (5 seconds), hold the air for another 5-7 seconds and breathe out for about 10 seconds.
• As you breathe, imagine that the tension escapes through the expired air and you free yourself from it.
• Perform this process 3 times in a row.
• Once done the three times, move to controlled breathing: breathe in through the nose for 3 seconds and breathe out for another 3 seconds, but without holding the air.

In this article you can learn more relaxation techniques.

4. Use the numbers

One of the cognitive activities that most strengthen our concentration is calculation. To perform this type of mental operations requires a great level of concentration.

So if it is difficult for you to concentrate, practicing these activities in your free time to the best of your ability will greatly contribute to improving your ability to concentrate..

There are thousands of calculation activities to perform, and all of them will be effective in improving your concentration as long as you do them scrupulously..

Want to do the famous sudoku puzzles that for many people can be a more enjoyable way of doing this type of activity, even doing any type of mathematical operation on a regular basis will improve your ability to concentrate..

5. Train your attention

As concentration is a cognitive activity designed to focus our attention on a specific aspect, another very useful exercise is to train our attention.

In other words, if we have greater control over our attentional processes, it will be much easier for us to concentrate. One of the most effective ways for you to work your attention in your spare time is to do the typical word searches.

For example, before this alphabet soup try to mark with a pencil:

• Every number 4 you find.
• All the letters T I find.
• All the odd numbers you find.
• All the vowels you find.

Once done, write down the time taken to complete the four tasks.

6. A moment of mindfulness

It is a Mindfulness technique (mindfulness) that you can do at any time of the day: before going to work, while waiting for the bus or when you take a break at the office.

The exercise consists of focusing on your breathing for a couple of minutes, and its objective is to help you restore your thoughts, relax and obtain that mental clarity that you may have been losing during the day.

To do this you have to stand, leave your eyes open, breathe with your belly (not with your chest), expel the air with your nose and focus all your attention on the sound and rhythm of your breathing..

It is likely that when you do, other thoughts will come to your head. When this happens, make an effort to return your attention to the breath and ignore other stimuli..

Because it is a simple exercise that requires little time to perform, it is recommended to do it in those moments of stress, when you lack clarity of ideas or feel confused about something.

Doing this in those moments you will restore your thoughts and your attention, it will be more to reorganize the concepts of your head, and you will reach a more suitable state to be able to concentrate..

7. Conscious observation

This exercise, like the mindfulness exercise, is also a Mindfulness technique that can be performed in a simple way, and that can help you a lot in improving your ability to concentrate..

In this case, conscious observation consists of choosing any object. It can be the cover of a book, a lamp or a cup of coffee (it does not matter the qualities of the object).

Once you have chosen the object, you must observe it very carefully and be able to focus all your attention on it for about 3 or 4 minutes.

This simple exercise is very useful as it breaks the routine of our mind. If we look closely, throughout the day we see many things, we observe some with more or less attention, but rarely do we observe something in a 100% conscious way.

By doing so, our mind frees itself from certain thoughts, focuses on the present and gives us a feeling of "being awake" that helps us focus on a specific aspect.

8. The mental image

Another exercise similar to that of conscious observation is the mental image.

As with the other exercise, you must choose any object that you have at hand (a pencil, a fork, some shoes ...) and observe it carefully, focusing all your attention on it, and trying to remember every detail of that object.

Once you have observed the object as closely as possible for about 2 or 3 minutes, you should try to recreate a mental image about the object in your head, so that that image is as similar as possible to the object.

With this exercise, apart from focusing your attention on the present as in the previous one, you will work on your information storage processes, so you will have to carry out extra concentration work to recover the information of the object that you have just observed..

9. Expression of our memories

Thinking about our memories is an exercise that normally gives us pleasure or is pleasant, but at the same time requires a high degree of concentration to be able to recover the information that is in our brain.

When we remember, apart from exercising our memory, we are training our concentration in an indirect way. Now: we must remember in a structured and detailed way, it is not worth thinking about past events without focusing our attention completely on them..

Therefore, an exercise that we can do is to remember our vacations, writing down all the details that we remember about them: where they went, who you went with, what places you visited, what anecdotes happened, etc..

This exercise can be done at night, in a relaxed and calm way, for about 30-40 minutes before going to sleep..

10. Focus on your day

Another exercise that you can do before going to sleep is to try to remember everything that you have done throughout the day when you go to bed.

It is a simple exercise that requires practically no effort and it is recommended to do it on a daily basis, getting into the habit of doing this exercise before falling asleep..

You can do it when you are already lying in bed, and the objective is that during the 5 or 10 minutes that you do this exercise, you can remember with as much detail as possible everything you have done during the day, the people you have seen or the things that have caught your attention.

And what do you do to improve your concentration? Share it with us!

References

1. Reinoso García, A.I. et al. (2008). Cognitive stimulation exercise book 1. Institute of Public Health. Madrid Health. City of Madrid.
2. Reinoso García, A.I. et al. (2008). Cognitive stimulation exercise book 2. Institute of Public Health. Madrid Health. City of Madrid.
3. Tárrega, L., Boada, M., Morera, A., Guitart, M., Domènech, S., Llorente, A. (2004) Review Notebooks: Practical exercises of cognitive stimulation for patients with Alzheimer's in the mild phase. Barcelona: Editorial Glosa.