5 min read
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Introduction
To this very day, I still struggle with zoning out randomly, no matter the situation – whether I’m working on a task, talking to a friend, or even sleeping. Yeah, I know. Trust me, it isn’t the best feeling in the world when you’re about to go to sleep, and actually try and pull off a good night’s rest, and then all of a sudden – I start thinking about those dumb mistakes I made when I was 7, or how I accidentally mispronounced my name on my first day of school, whatever it is.
‘Zoning out’ isn’t something that you do just when you work. No, not at all.
Turns out, you actually zone out all the time. And every time you do zone it, it costs you -maybe- what seems like just a couple of seconds or minutes. But, when you repeat this habit dozens, or even hundreds of times per day, you lose so much more than you think you are.
What could be 3 hours of focused, well-done work, is now 2 and a half hours because your brain kept giving up on you. And what now is 6 and a half hours of sleep, could’ve been a full 8 hours if you concentrated on just sleeping.
The focus of this post is to tackle this problem overall – not just the work-related aspect of it. So, how exactly do we do that?
How Bad Do You Zone Out?
If you’re curious, we’re asking this question because once we’re able to assess the severity of how much we ‘unlock’ ourselves (sorry) from the real world, the better we are able in actually directly fixing the issue and resolving the root error.
So, how bad do you zone out, on average, per day? Do you find yourself doing this just a few times per day, and staying extremely focused for the rest of the day? (really rare, but definitely possible if you know how to perfectly balance your dopamine and concentration centers)
In my case, on a good day, I might zone out between 10-15 times within a day (this is while averaging close to 9-10 hours of sleep). On such a day, I work for about 85-90% of the entire day, rarely touch my phone other than for doing Duolingo or Mimo (very helpful platforms for learning a language, both human and computer).
But on a bad day, I’ll zone out between 35-50 times (about). On such a day, I might get around the same amount of sleep (more in the 8-9 hour range however), focus on my work for around 50-70% of the day, and use my phone a lot more for dopamine-heavy activities.
If you’re asking, no I have absolutely no clue as for whether or not these numbers are accurate. I just gave a ballpark range.
How To Stop Zoning Out (Direct Strategy)
If you want to stop zoning out, directly, you need to find something that’s more beneficial and appreciable to your mind. This means finding activities that don’t overstimulate it (but still do, because without dopamine you’ll actually go insane), but that still are enjoyable to the mind.
For example, what is an activity that you can do that is actually good for your mental/physical health, but that isn’t watching TV, playing video games, scrolling on your phone, playing outside, listening to music, or anything that doesn’t actually get anything done for you in terms of the long-term aspect; unless you’re looking to become a professional athlete – which is a far different story
Example (What I Did)
If I had an assignment to complete for the day that followed, my first focus would be to focus, and solely focus. No more, no less.
To do this, I would need to find a way to make my brain believe that what I was doing was truly good for me. Just like you know eating healthy is good for you, or how getting enough sunlight is, or moving enough, the same goes for getting this assignment done.
Sure, even if it’s the most pointless assignment that you’ll end up forgetting by the start of next week; trust me, getting this task done will be so much better for you than not doing it. You need to position your mind in a stance that will notify it that it has to do something, for the better.
How I did this, specifically, was by getting myself mentally comfortable with completing large quantities of work. For example, I loved (and still do) coding and making games when I was a few years younger, back in freshman year; so I would spend a few hours everyday, and every weekend learning to get better and improve my coding ability. I wasn’t good by any means, but what mattered was that it put me in the position to do more work, of whatever focus, with more concentration, and enjoyment.
How You Can Replicate What I Did, And Better
Your goal is to stop zoning out. Good. What you need to prioritize is loading your mind with straining activities, that although still fun to do for you, force it to use up its energy and creative set. You need to use your brain, and actually start thinking. Doing this will allow you pay attention to things that don’t feed your brain constant dopamine-filled sources.
Make your mind work, work for its dopamine, work for its enjoyment, and as a result – you’ll force it to pay attention.
However, there is one thing I did wrong. When I applied this exact method, there is something I didn’t prioritize. That was time. I spent forever on tasks that shouldn’t have taken as long as they did. Sure, the work quality was phenomenal – but it was too good for such a simple, low-level task. So, my suggestion? Balance your efforts according to the importance of certain tasks. An essay is worth far more than a regular 30 minute assignment.
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How To Stop Zoning Out (The Easier, Longer Strategy)
If you’re not willing to force your mind out of its comfort zone, there is one other thing you could do. That’s balance.
Sometimes, you might be feeding yourself too much. Your plate might, all the time, be too full. For example, on the days where you’re more relaxed, in a calmer and happier state, you can suddenly focus more on the tasks that used to be so straining.
How To Find Balance
A few techniques that you can use to find an equilibrium are:
- Meditation
- Reading a book
- Maintaining a balanced schedule
- Listening to an enlightening song
- Learning something new, about anything that interests you at all
But, if you ask me, none of these will actually work. If you want real balance, you need to find a balance between the stuff that makes you happy, and the stuff that don’t. Balance out the quantity of time that you relax, that you sleep, that you watch TV, that you eat, that you work, that you exercise, whatever it is. Find a suitable balance for it mentally and in terms of time – and in exchange, you will -probably- have reached a good, happy state.
But, This Might Not Work
Balance is unfathomably hard for a majority of us. We get back from school, or work, exhausted, with only a few hours left in the day to do whatever we want before it’s time to sleep and prepare for the next day. I get you.
Balance in that situation, is tough. And so, in my opinion, instead of having your surroundings adapt to you (to which they might never will; and even if they do, you might just end up being stuck in an endless loop of regularity), or adapt to your surroundings yourself.
You are the only one that can choose between the hard game, or the easy (not so fair) game. The choice is yours.
Zoning Out, In General
These methods that I have provided are aimed at helping you concentrate and focus better. But, what does anything of this have to do with zoning out and fixing it?
Well, here’s the answer. The entire time, while I wrote this post, I can fairly say that I haven’t zoned out once. Not once. Whoa, that’s cool. Yeah, it is.
And, I’m able to do that so comfortably because I love what I do. What you need to understand is that working is apart of life, and so is paying attention to the things that you probably don’t care all that much about. Learning to pay attention is an ability that not many of us have nowadays.
So, that’s all there really is to it. If you can observe your behavior, adapt to your environment, and are willing to test your attention span and focus on the tasks that you enjoy, later transferring it to other, more meaningless tasks, then you’ll have solved your problem.
Ultimately, even after reading this guide, you will continue to zone out. Why? Well, that’s because it’s natural. Sometimes, it’s actually good to zone out, and just space yourself out from everything that’s going on. If you’re working on anything really, it’s actually highly recommended because it gives your mind time to pause, and take a quick breather. There’s more than meets the eye.
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Conclusion
If you can learn to harness your attention, and harness your focus at any given moment, you have a mini-superpower. That’s the ability to direct your attention towards anything, almost instantaneously.
You will continue to zone out; and that’s completely fine. The conversation at hand here is slowing done this process of losing focus, and instead replacing it with its opposite – focus.
