Two chairs for improved concentration
Anyone who has ever studied something for school, written something, or done any other activity at a desk knows the phenomenon that everything else seems so much more interesting as soon as you sit down. The fly that just walks on the wall in front of us attracts our attention like the light attracts moths. Also thoughts like cleaning up our room or doing the laundry again come up in these moments.
But how do we manage to focus our attention at the appropriate time on what we need to or should be working on?
For this I recently stumbled across an interesting trick, which actually works. All you need are two chairs. The one that stands at your desk and a second one that you put in the middle of the room.
Sounds strange? I know.
Now try to devote yourself to your work. If you notice that your attention is lost somewhere in the room, get up and sit on the chair in the middle of the room. Here it is important that you take nothing with you, no cell phone, no tablet, no book or in short nothing that could distract you.
If you are not skilled in meditation, you will quickly get bored. The only way to get rid of boredom is to return to your work on the other chair.
If you have other things on your mind while you are working, go back to the chair in the middle of the room. You can repeat this process as often as you like. You're probably wondering what all the fun is about, after all, you could just sit in the first chair, at the desk. The problem is that there are far too many distractions at your desk. From the simple click of a pen to all the possibilities the internet offers, there are many ways to distract yourself at your desk. These distractions are taken on the chair in the middle of the room and without these distractions, the dopamine level in your head lowers. By doing the work you set out to do, it goes back up a little. With this alternation of dopamine reward in the form of work done and dopamine punishment in the form of sitting in a boring chair, your brain starts to get used to and even enjoy the work.
If you don't have two chairs in your room, you can also move the chair from the desk to the center of the room. However, for my part, I believe that it is more effective to use two separate chairs.
If you can't believe that there is such a simple trick to stop procrastination, just try it. I, for one, have solved one or two mental blocks in this way over the past few weeks.
Do you have any other tricks on how to easily improve your work ethic? If so, feel free to post your tips and tricks in the comments.