Now-a-days it is so important that we stay focused in a world full of distraction. Especially as a college student. It could be the difference between acing or bombing a class. We are constantly surrounded by distractions, and most of the time we let those distractions get the best of us. Its so easy to let little social media checks turn into a huge waste of time. Luckily you can combat these these distractions and boost your productivity tenfold with deep focus.

Deep focus is a state of mind that allows you block out any and all distractions and lets you become completely engulfed in what ever your doing. Its like its own natural form of Adderall; a meditative high that gets you super concentrated. Most people have rarely experienced this when they work or study because distractions are so prevalent and it is so easy to get side tracked. Have you ever played a video game or watched a movie where all time just flies by, nothing else matters and you feel like you are living in the game or scene? You just allow yourself and your body to be completely immersed in what ever it is in front of you. This is deep focus. We are all capable of doing it. It’s just we only apply it to some things.

After you learn how you can become deeply focused on what you need to be doing, such as school or work, it will amaze you how much your productivity increases. What normally would be 5 hours of studying becomes 1 hour. Class becomes entertaining and useful and not just another nap. You let yourself make full use of your brain, for clearer and quicker thinking.

But deep focus doesn’t just come right away. It takes discipline and practice. Here are a few steps on how you can put yourself in the right state of mind for deep focus.

1.) Preparing for deep focus

Preparing for deep focus is probably the most fundamental part in becoming deeply concentrated and feeling all of its effects. A big factor of how well you can deep focus is how effectively you minimize the distractions in your environment. Sure we think that studying with a group of friends is a great idea, but in reality you just end up chatting away, watching vines, and get little to no work done. You’re just setting yourself up to be distracted. If it isn’t easy enough to distract yourself, if one of your friends get distracted then you all become distracted. The best way that you can get in to deep focus is when you're alone with nothing but you and the things you need to work.

So with that being said, clean your area. If you’re studying in your room, try to clean up a bit. A cluttered area makes for a cluttered mind. You’ll be surprised with what it feels like when you have room to think.

Cleaning your desk is probably the most important. if you can’t clean your whole room then at least get your desk or work area set up. Only keep the things that you need at that moment in your work area. This depends on what your working on or studying for, but the less you have out the better. Just think of all those Tumblr posts of the a clean table with nothing but a Mac and a steamy cup of coffee.

You clean in order to eliminate distractions, but probably the biggest distraction of them all is our phone. What you think will be a quick glance at SnapChat can turn into you losing a half hour watching all your friends 200 second stories… time not well spent. The best way is to turn it on silent and keep it out of reach and out of sight. Not on vibrate and not in your pocket. Sure you might miss a few texts or calls but this is ok. You have to let yourself become unattached from communication.

Also if you're using a computer don’t keep Facebook, Twitter, YouTube tabs open, these will be easy distractions. Obviously we will need to use the internet to study, but only look up the thing that you need to.

2.) Timing

Timing is key to staying focused for longer periods of time. If you can, try to get important work done before noon. Morning hours are when your brain is freshest and fastest. It hasn’t had the day to be filled with other thoughts that clutter your thinking.

Breaks are key to staying focused. It’s taxing on your brain concentrate for long periods. A good timing scheme is the 25 and 5 rule. Take 25 minutes of deep focus with a five minute break. This five minute break is a good time to respond to any texts that you missed, stand up, stretch your legs and back, go refill your water or go to the bathroom. Just don’t let your phone get to you!

3.) Planning

Try to plan out what tasks you want to accomplish and what kind of time you have. Make a short check list of tasks on a sticky note and divide up the time you have to each task. This helps you focus on one thing at a time. We like to think that we are great "multitaskers", but it has been scientifically shown that it is less efficient than just working on one thing at a time. Just let yourself become completely focused one task at a time.

Try to stay on track with what your you set your schedule to be. But if you’re way off, its okay, you will get better and better at estimating how much time your tasks take. Remember, deep focus is a skill, it takes practice and you’ll get better and better at it.

4.) Keep a train of thought

If you’re like me, and even when you are focused, you seem to get lost in your own thoughts. You think a lot but it doesn’t seem like its getting you anywhere. What I do is write down my train of though. I aways keep a white board or note book by my side so I can quickly jot down what I’m currently trying to figure out. If I get lost I just look and see where my thoughy process is again.

5.) Reflect

After you have completed a session of deep focus, reflect on how it went. Did you accomplish all of your tasks? Did you stick to your schedule? Were you able to stay focused the whole time or were you distracted by something? Reflect on all of these questions and think of how you can improve next time. Maybe you checked your phone too many times or you underestimated how much time it would take to study. Just remember to make these adjustments the next time. Like I said deep focus is something that you get better at each time you do it.

The key thing here is to find what works best for you. Whatever your system is, try to make it work for you. Just see what lets you get the most focused and get the most work done. The brain is an amazing thing. We just need to make the best use out of it.