How to control your brain to get into the zone of focus

 
Reading time: 4-5 mins

The idea in short:

• Your brain has a zone where it can focus best - when you are not too stressed and not too relaxed, and the chemical balance is just right

• You have control over how well you can focus, because you can influence these chemicals yourself

• Two simple actions you can take: when you are too relaxed, visualise the day you share your work with your boss (this raises the pressure). When you are too stressed, write down the things that are stressing you (this lowers it)
  
  

You have just had your morning coffee and are sitting down to work on your important project report. It’s not due for a while, but it’s super important to get right, and it might help you make a case for your promotion.

But somehow you keep getting distracted. You can’t focus properly, and you end up postponing it.

When you come back to it in the afternoon, you just can’t concentrate again. You switch to lighter tasks and reply to some urgent emails. So you decide to work on it tomorrow.

And when the time comes, your thoughts go to the meeting you have to prep for Friday, and you start on that first.

So you keep postponing this, until the day before the deadline.

That day, you finally have the space. But again your brain doesn’t want to obey. You feel super stressed that the deadline is round the corner. What if you don’t finish in time? Your brain goes into overdrive.

You really struggle to deliver good work, and in the end you get annoyed with yourself for having wasted a chance to really stand out.

Sounds familiar?

Likely yes. We all experience this.

But what we don’t often do is reflect on why it is happening in the first place. Why do we lose focus and then postpone? And even more important, what can we do about it?

I can tell you, it hasn’t got to do with laziness or willpower. It has to do with how your brain works.

And the good news is that you have control over how much you can focus. Once you understand what your brain needs, you can take action and get the report done well!

Your brain has a zone where it focuses best

Too much urgency or pressure causes you stress. That is not helpful, because then you panic.

Too little urgency or pressure is also not helpful. You feel too relaxed, and your mind wanders off.

In between, there is a zone of optimal performance. You will notice when you are in it, because you can focus very well.

Let’s have a look at what happens in the brain, and why there is such a zone.

Two chemicals decide how well you can focus

All your strategic thinking happens in the front part of your brain. Technically, it is called the prefrontal cortex.

This part of the brain works best when its chemicals are in balance. Then the brain cells can pass messages to each other in the best way.

Two chemicals matter most.

The first is noradrenaline. It makes you alert, and it goes up when you feel pressure.

The second is dopamine. It makes you interested, and it goes up when something feels new or rewarding.

They both need to be present at the right level. Professor Amy Arnsten at Yale has studied this for many years (I have linked her research below)

If you have too little of them, you can’t focus well. That was you on that first morning. The deadline was far away, so nothing felt urgent, and you drifted to your emails.

And if it’s too much, again it won’t work. That was you the day before the deadline, with your brain in overdrive.

Your brain is quite fussy!

What I learnt from a concert that went wrong

I knew about this concept of optimal pressure from my training as a musician. For a concert, you do need some pressure in order to perform well. But not too much, because then you cannot focus.

Many years ago, I gave a flute concert on a day when I wasn’t feeling well. So I didn’t take it seriously, and I went into it far too relaxed.

It was obvious. I had no focus, and I made so many mistakes.

The aha moment came recently, when I was reading David Rock’s book Your Brain at Work. You can actually take action to increase or decrease these chemicals on purpose. And that changes how well you can perform.

Here is how.

When you are too relaxed: turn the pressure up

1. Visualise a situation where you feel slightly under pressure. In the case of the project report, picture the day you share it with your boss and give a short presentation. That will raise your alertness. But be careful not to let it get out of hand, so don’t go too deep. Just start to feel it, for 5 to 10 seconds.
   
   

2. Set your own deadline. Promise your boss a draft in advance. For example: “I’ll send you the outline on Thursday.” Now the urgency is real.
   
   

3. Think about the reward. Picture how it will feel when the report is done really well, and what it could mean for your promotion. That raises your interest.
   
   

When you are too stressed: turn the pressure down

When your brain is in overdrive, the thinking part needs a rest. Two ideas:

1. Take a short walk. Moving uses a different part of your brain, and that gives the thinking part a break.
   
   

2. Write down the things that are currently stressing you. That calms the brain down too, and it is much faster than the walk.
   
   

Your action: check in with your brain more often

Most of the time, we don’t notice which state our brain is in. We just notice that we can’t focus.

So this week, before you start an important piece of work, stop for a moment and ask yourself: “Am I too relaxed, too stressed, or in my zone?”

Then take control - use one of the tools above to get yourself into the zone.

The more regularly you check, the quicker you will notice. And the report that could make the case for your promotion gets the focus it deserves.

The research by Amy Arnsten that I mentioned is linked here.