I need to focus more on my activity
Now saying that you need to focus sounds easy but actually achieving it is something different. There are different ways to work up to building an active habit but what is required is a level of focus. If you are a novice to physical activity, you may need your behaviour to be at the front of your mind and be one the main things you think about, however, if you’re looking to increase your activity a little, you may be able to make a couple of changes without much effort. Also, different people are able to focus more clearly with less effort than others. In some cases, regardless of previous experience of being active, people struggle to focus on something when everyday pressures are taking over, such as work and caring for others. Focus does take a certain amount of discipline but there are more practical things you can do to help you keep on track.
I think I know what I need to do to be more active or lose weight, but I also know that it needs to be at a time when I can focus more energy towards doing it otherwise I’ll struggle to maintain it.
There are ways to help you keep your focus on being more active, those little prods to keep you thinking about what activity you’re doing, or should be doing!
Get Planning
By planning your activity and the things you need to have in place to be more active, the less you have focus at different times of the day/week. There are a variety of things you can do and plenty of tools to use, such as apps, online planners and paper planners/activity diaries. It requires a bit of work and focus to devise your plans but once they’re in place, it requires less focus and brain power. For more information on planning activity, click the link below;
Remove Distractions
Focusing on changing behaviour is a difficult thing to do and maintain so one thing to help is to try and remove those things that distract your focus the most. The harder it is to engage with these distractions, the easy it will be to keep focus on your activity. These can be small actions such as not sitting down on the sofa when you plan to go and be active as it can be harder to get motivated and don’t start tasks when you plan to exercise. There are bigger things that cause you to lose focus on a regular basis. If you’re working from home, continuing to work on when you had planned to do some activity is a commonly found issue, when that email comes in or that piece of work isn’t quite finished, it can feel that you should tend to that first before your own activity, however (unless it’s critical) it will still be there in half an hour when you return and you’ll feel more able to deal it with the endorphins you’ll get from being active! Shut the door, put the laptop away, remove that potential distraction from view so you don’t even think about it.
Create an Active Environment
One way to help you maintain focus on changing your behaviour is make your environment more conducive to encouraging activity with less distractions. This is for both your physical environment but also your social environment. We’ve discussed the physical environment with removing work from your eyeline, but also having someone support in the home with tasks and caring responsibilities. You can also make provisions such as getting gym kit ready and leave it by the door/car and set reminders at appropriate times. You can also create a social environment which will help you remain focused, such as doing activity with friends to add a level of peer support, have family and friends on your side supporting your behaviour change and pushing you to do your activity.
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