Selecting what to focus on: Decide what to study/learn and guide your attention

Before we even begin to concentrate, we have to make a decision on what to focus on. To make things worse, you cannot begin with everything, even if it is equally important. Deciding where to start is one of the hardest decisions. If you don’t know, choose a topic that is related to your previous study session. If your only option is to study new concepts, begin with a simple overview of a topic and peel the onion layer by layer.

Shifting between context and facts is important. Both strengthen memory for each other. Some information is irresistible to look at and helps you concentrate on a small specific area. These are your “anchors”. Find them.

Knowledge builds bit by bit, and it’s important to limit your focus to a balance of depth & breadth. That is, take a topic, draw a circle around it, learn a few things within that circle, learn things that are on its border, then repeat this for a new topic, and occasionally, do an overview of how multiple circles merge into each other. This engages a narrow, detailed form of attention and a global, broad form of attention. Both narrow and broad attention is a part of “attentional control,” a fancy term for concentration.

Tips on choosing what to focus on

• Select just 2-3 topics to study at a time. Limiting choices improves focus because you’ve set a small achievable goal. Fewer distractions and easy decisions. Snowball around that after you are done.
• Switch between narrow and broad perspectives. So concept – detail – concept – detail. Study similar concepts in parallel as a “concept cluster.”
• Study at various levels of processing. Learn new concepts at the very basic level, then add more details, then learn the limits, and so on. Adding a little bit beyond your current comprehension will keep you engaged.
• Attention wavers, and you can get bored, so shift to a related topic to refresh your mind.