Author: Debbie Page 3 of 23

Staying focused throughout the day can be hard. It can be even more difficult if you live with Depression. Add a dash of ADHD, and things can really become challenging! However, there are some things you can do and some tools you can utilize that will make it easier to concentrate and get things done. Here are five tools that will keep you focused throughout your busy day.             

Plans, Lists, And Outlines 

One of the best tools to help you stay focused is a piece of paper and a pen. Use this to make sure you stay on track and always know what you should be working on. Make plans, draw up outlines and work with lists. A Daily to-do list or a checklist for a particular project can be a great tool to help you stay productive and focused throughout the day. You can also use digital tools such as Trello or Asana to help you manage your tasks that need to be completed today or in the next few days. The benefits of these tools is that you won’t lose your lists that you have written on paper! Many people find a combination of these two tools, lists on paper as well as a digital tool such as Asana, to be the best way to stay focused, organized and on track.

Set Deadlines 

Work will expand to fill the time you allot it. Because of that it’s important to set deadlines. Figure out how long it should take you to do a particular task, or even an entire project and come up with some deadlines for yourself. Just keep in mind that if these are your own personal deadlines, you can move them if your mental health needs more time to complete it. However, if they are deadlines imposed on you by a boss or some other outside factor, be sure you give yourself plenty of time and be sure not to pile a lot of other responsibilities on your plate while you are completing the project. Taking on too many tasks with strict deadlines can be incredibly draining to our mental health.

It is important to know your limits and the amount of energy you have each day to address to important activities. Become aware of how much you can do each day without becoming emotionally exhausted or triggering your mental health in a negative way.

Exercise

It may be weird at first glance to think of exercise as a tool to help you focus, but it can make a big difference. Not only does it give you a bit of a mental break and is just overall healthy and good for you, a little bit of exercising throughout your workday also gets the blood flowing, makes you breath harder, and as a result, gets more oxygen into your system. Movement will also stimulate your brain which will help you focus more. It will also help keep your emotions more level so you are able to focus without distraction of depression.

Regular exercise each day will also keep your mind clearer, increase your focus and help your mental health to stay more stable. You will also have more energy and be healthier overall. Movement is so important for so many areas of our lives.

The next time you feel stuck, or unproductive, get up and move around. Do a few sit-ups, do a few jumping jacks, squats, stretch or take a quick walk on your lunch break. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how much of a difference it can make. 

Clean Food and Plenty Of Water 

What you eat is just as important. I know I mention this all the time, but it really is that important. Changing how I eat over the years has made and incredible difference in my brain health. Eat a healthy diet and fuel your body with good, clean food. Don’t overdo it at lunch. You don’t want your body to be so busy digesting that big plate of pasta that you feel like you need an afternoon nap. It can be better to eat smaller meals and add in some snacks in between to space out your food to keep your energy up and won’t drain your energy by digesting a big meal.

Make sure you drink plenty of water throughout the day. We should drink a minimum of half a gallon(2 liters) of water per day. Drinking a gallon is even better. Dehydration can cause headaches and keep you unfocused for hours on end. 

Rest and Sleep 

Last but not least, make sure you get plenty of sleep and enough rest and relaxation. We live in such a busy, fast paced world and many of us are not sleeping enough or taking enough time to recharge. You can’t stay 100% focused all the time. Give your brain a rest, do something relaxing you enjoy doing and of course get a good 8 hours of sleep at night. When you are planning out your day, be sure to add in that relaxation/recharge time. We need a mental and physical break to keep ourselves mentally and physically well. This will help you stay focused when it’s time to buckle down and get work done in a sustainable way. 

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Getting and staying focused when you know you should be working on a task isn’t always easy. Especially when you struggle with your mental health. While many of the traditional tips to stay focus will help, you may need a few more ideas to try. With practice each one becomes easier to do and eventually you will develop a new habit. Anyone can benefit from these simple tips that will boost your focus and keep you sharp for longer stretches of time. Give them a try and see if you find them as helpful as I do. 

Write A To-Do List 

Is there anything better than a fresh to-do list? Wait, does not everyone love lists as much as I do? LOL. My family has always made fun of me for my detailed to-do lists. I include activities such as showering, eating, and other basic day to day activities because it truly helps me stay focused on what needs to be done next. When you have a clear objective, broken down into steps you need to do one at a time, it becomes much easier to focus and stay on track with your day. You know exactly what you need to focus on and when that’s done you don’t waste any time figuring out what comes next. You simply move on to the next item on your list. 

Before you sit down to get your focused work done, spend a few minutes figuring out exactly what it is you need to get accomplished. Even better, do it the afternoon or night before, so you are up and running first thing in the morning. Then before you call it a day, while everything about the project is still fresh on your mind, make out tomorrow’s list. 

Set A Timer 

Nothing helps you focus better than a tight deadline. You can use the Pomodoro technique to work under short deadlines using nothing more than a kitchen timer. As someone who has lived with depression for most of my life, I have found this method to be very helpful. Our brains need breaks and the timer forces you to do that. While the Pomodoro technique suggests 25 minutes, feel free to make yours a shorter amount of time in the beginning or on difficult days. Even just 10 minutes of focus and then a 5 minute break can get you through some difficult days with more productivity than you expected. You’ll be surprised how much it will help you focus and get more done in less time. 

Grab a kitchen timer, or use an app on your phone. Decide what task you want to work on and set a timer for 25 minutes. Work fast and furious until that timer goes off. Take a 5 minute break and start another 25 minute work sessions. After three to four of these sessions take a longer break, get up, and move around. 

Crank Up Some Tunes 

If you find that your mind keeps wandering, or if you are working in a distracting or noisy environment, consider plugging in some headphones and listening to some music to help you focus. It can drown out the noise around you and help you keep your mind on the job you’re doing. You can also put on white noise or soothing sounds such as the waves of the ocean crashing on the shore, or sounds of the rain forest. The possibilities are endless!

There is specific music out there that helps you focus, work, or study. Do a quick search on YouTube and try a few different ones. Classical or instrumental music in general also works well for a lot of people. Words can be distracting so by using music without words, it gives you the ability to stay calm and focus on the task at hand.

In the end it comes down to personal preference though. Listen to the type of music that gets you going and helps you stay focused. 

Gives these strategies for staying focused a try and find out what works best for you. You want something that motivates you and makes you push harder, concentrate for longer periods of time, and help you produce your best work.  You will feel more accomplished and successful which will lead to your feeling more joy and confidence.

We are stronger together.

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Before you can focus on a task at work or in your personal life, you have to know what you should be focusing on. By planning and knowing what to focus on each day, you will free up mental energy used figuring out what to be doing and put it towards your mental health. After all, working hard on something that doesn’t give you the results you want or need, isn’t very helpful and is extremely frustrating. The key is to make smart decisions, prioritize, and have a good idea of what you need to focus each day. If it works better for you, break it down to what you need to focus on each morning and afternoon, or even hour by hour.

Start With The Big Picture 

Before you can start to focus, you need to have a good grasp of the big pictures. Without this all-important first step, it’s too easy to fall into a trap of doing busywork, or continuing to do the same tasks each day without seeing the results you want to get. Or, if you are like me, you will end up getting nothing done at all. When living with depression, ADHD, anxiety, etc, the overwhelm of not knowing what to do or not do, can lead you to become completely mentally paralyzed and unable to accomplish even the simplest tasks. So, having the big picture and desired result laid out can help you stay focused and on track.

I’m sure you’ve experienced this in your own life. You go through the motions because that’s how you’ve always done it. It’s easier to stick to your current habits than it is to sit down and figure out what the big picture is. Developing new habits can also feel so daunting. It doesn’t matter if this is for a work project, or a personal goal. Start by deciding exactly what it is you want to accomplish. Then, make a plan!

Make A Plan And Come Up With A Strategy 

Once you have that big picture or big goal in mind, it’s time to make a plan for getting from where you’re at now to where you want to be. In your personal life, that might mean figuring out how you can go from living in an apartment to owning your own home. At work, it could mean going from the position you have now to getting that management promotion, or seeing a larger project through from start to finish. For managing your mental health, it could be taking small steps each day to develop new habits to work towards more emotional freedom.

It may be helpful to map it out on a piece of paper or with your favorite mind mapping software. Using post it notes to organize all you need to do for each goal can be another great organizing tool. Seeing all the pieces in one place and how they interconnect can be very helpful in the next step. Using visuals can be very helpful.

Turn That Plan Into Action Items 

Last but not least it’s time to turn that strategy into action items. These are simple tasks you can get done one at a time. For example:  with home ownership, this may mean paying off your credit cards, saving for a down payment, and all the little things you can do to come up with that extra money (like cooking at home more, or canceling your cable). For work and business related projects, this means breaking it down into small projects, tasks, or daily to-do lists you can work from. For health it can be drinking water with lemon during the day, taking a walk each day, eating more plant based foods, drinking less or anything that you know will help you get to your end goal.

Once you have those individual steps it will become much easier to focus on them one at a time and get stuff done. If you still feel overwhelmed, see if you can break your steps down even further.

Our lives are busy. We’re juggling families, households, jobs, and various social obligations, while constantly being distracted by media in one form or another. When it comes to our personal life, we have two options. We can let our surroundings take over and “go with the flow”, or we can work on mental focus for our personal life and do the things we really want to do. When you live with a mental illness such as Depression or Anxiety, it can become even more difficult to stay focused in your personal life.

This is why it is important to incorporate strategies that will lead you to success and to set personal goals on a regular basis. Yes, it takes time and energy to come up with personal goals and then figure out how to go about reaching them. I encourage you to create a goal poster with pictures of your goals and hang it where you will see it every single day. These goals don’t have to be all animate objects. You can set goals for your physical and mental health too. The important thing is having goals you are excited about. This can help you to stay focused on days that it is a struggle. Some days it’s much easier to get up, plop down on the couch and start binging our favorite Netflix series. While there is certainly a time and place for this, I’m sure you don’t want to wake up one day and realize that you’ve missed out on life for the past few years. 

Many of us are better at staying focused in our jobs, but struggle in our personal life. Working on mental focus outside of work and business, helps you prioritize and make time for the people and things that are important to you. It helps you figure out a way to make it to your child’s soccer game or play performance, enjoy your favorite hobbies, spend quality time with your spouse and close friends, while still having enough time to relax and watch a movie and get a good night’s sleep. It also helps you focus on the habits and strategies you need each day in order to better manage your depression. It is so easy to skip all of these and just watch TV, but by having those goals in front of you, you can remind yourself to keep going.

The key is to pinpoint time wasters and focus on what’s important to you. It may help to keep a time journal for a week or two. Grab a notebook and start jotting down what you do throughout the day. It’s up to you if you want to track what you do at work as well. Make sure you track everything you do during your free time from the time you get up to the time you go to bed. If you’re spending your morning drinking coffee and browsing the internet or watching a morning TV show, and that doesn’t bring you the joy and fulfillment you want in your life, think about how you can spend that time better. Maybe mediation would help you feel less stressed throughout your day. Maybe spending that time working out would give you more time with your loved ones in the early evenings. Or maybe this might be a good time to get around to reading those books on your bucket reading list. 

Keep a journal for a few days or even weeks and review were you’re spending your time. The simple act of having to write it down makes you more aware of what you’re doing. This alone will help you focus on each task. Next, make a list of things you want to change in your personal life, or even just a list of things you want to do more of. Maybe you want to take an hour each evening to play with the kids. Maybe you want to spend more time each year traveling. It doesn’t matter what your goals are. The important part is that you set them and then work on a plan to make sure you can reach them. Break each goal down to the smallest steps possible and conquer them one at a time. After that it’s simply a matter of focusing on those small tasks one at a time and managing your time wisely. It will feel less overwhelming to check off the small steps you achieve and you will gain a sense of accomplishment that will lift your spirts and help you to move forward a little more each day.

How eating Whole Food Plant-Based diet has been a game changer in my depression management and overall mental health.

What is Whole Food Plant-Based eating? Whole foods are any foods that are not altered by science, chemicals or changed from it original form. Basically, if you can’t read and understand all the ingredients in a food product, it is most likely processed and no longer a whole food. 

Plant based simply means foods from plants, not animals. Eating a Whole Food Plant-Based diet has tremendous health benefits that can include improving mental health symptoms. 

One day I was sitting on the sofa in a lot of pain, and I turned on a documentary about eating a whole food plant-based diet. Then I watched another and another. My goal at the time was to find a way to get rid of my pain. I was not functioning which then led to an increase in my depression. After watching a few of these documentaries, I decided to take the plunge and began eating a Whole Food Plant Based diet, but only to see if it would help to decrease my depression. I committed to eating this way for 6 weeks to see if my pain decreased. After six weeks, my pain had decreased significantly and I was able to go food shopping, do laundry and other activities that I was unable to do for months. However, another surprising thing happened; my depression was also decreased, my mind was clearer, the world was brighter, and each day had more joy than sadness. Eating plant based, whole foods was helping my depression too! Now, at first I thought maybe my mood had gotten better simply because I was feeling better and moving again. However, this improvement in my mood continued. I also began to notice that when I ate junk or processed foods, my depression was more easily triggered. So, I do my best to eat a whole food plant-based diet every day.

I’ve known for years that eating healthy helped mental health. Back in the 90’s when I was in graduate school, I did a research paper on nutrition and mental health. I knew that certain vitamins and minerals help our mental health, certain foods could make it worse, and things like alcohol can trigger things like anxiety and depression. I have been a healthy eater most of my life and have been a vegetarian for most of the last 35 years. However, when I cut out all animal products and all processed foods, it was really a game changer for my mental health. That is why I want to share it with others. 

We put so much crap in our body. Too many of us don’t think about what we are eating and how it might affect our mind and body despite it being extremely important for our overall health and wellness. The less crap we put into our body, the less crappy it will treat us. 

Switching from a standard diet to a whole food plant-based diet can be a challenge for many, but here are 5 easy steps to begin the journey towards healthier eating and creating a stronger mental health. 

*Watch a few documentaries on whole food plant-base eating. The one that I first watched was Forks Over Knives. You can watch on their website HERE. I honestly wasn’t curious about it for my mental health. I also have Fibromyalgia and my pain became debilitating and I was living on the sofa. I was curious about how changing my diet might decrease my pain. After watching a few other documentaries, I decided to try it for 6 weeks. The difference was amazing. My pain decreased tremendously, and I was able to complete my day-to-day activities. As I continued to eat this way, I began to realize how much less my depression had become. The frequency and intensity of my depression had become less, and my depression had become easier to manage. Over the last 5 years, I noticed that when I don’t eat correctly, I do struggle more. What we feed our bodies also feed our mind. Feed your brain and body like you love it and it will begin to love you back even more. I have listed some of my favorite whole food plant-based websites, documentaries and books for you to explore if you are interested in exploring this way of eating further. 

*Start by cutting back how much meat you eat each week. If you are a big meat eater, it might be difficult for you to start eating no meat. Slowly cut back on how much meat you are eating. Some people only eat meat products at dinner while others eat it with every meal. Do what works for you. If you like to cook, then find a few new recipes to make that are whole food plant based. If you are like me and hate to cook, then keep it simples. A bowl of couscous, black beans, salsa, and some vegetables. Frozen veggies are totally good. Simple. Easy. Affordable. People often worry about getting enough protein without eating animal product, but you will be surprised at how much protein many plant products have. Between beans, tofu, greens, and many more. The documentary Game Changers is about athletes who have gone plant-based and talks about how they get enough protein. 

*Add extra fruits or vegetables to each meal and your snacks. Frozen vegetables are a great and easy way to add more vegetables to your meals. They don’t go bad for a long time, you can pop them in the microwave for a few minutes, add some to each meal. Vegetables with hummus is a great, healthy snack. Grab an apple and some natural peanut butter. Need something sweet? Dates with some dark chocolate inside them or make some homemade ice cream with frozen bananas and plant-based milk. You can slip fruits and vegetables easily into your daily meals and snacks. The vitamins and minerals will nourish your body and mind. 

*Decrease or eliminate your intake of processed foods. This is a difficult one for so many. We have gotten used easy, quick, pre-made items. It is so convenient to go through the fast-food drive-through for dinner. Look at labels. If you can’t understand the ingredients, then don’t eat it. Or, at least eat it very rarely. Processed food is anything that must be created by humans using unnatural ingredients. The less chemicals and processed food we put into our body, the less will go to our brain. Our physical and mental health will stay stronger and healthier.

*Decrease or eliminate alcohol. Alcohol is a depressant and can be addicted. While I have never been a big drinker, I never had any issue with alcohol making my depression worse until recently. I started to notice that my depression was worse the day after I had an alcoholic beverage. Because of this shift, I have begun to limit my alcoholic beverages to only special occasions again. This is how I drank most of my life and it is what works best for me. Regardless of it you deal with depression, anxiety or another mental health issue, eliminating or decreasing alcohol intake will only benefit your mental wellness. If you believe you have a problem with how much you drink, you can go to www.aa.org to find a meeting near you. At the end of the day, alcohol is like poison to our bodies, so the less we drink it, the healthier your body AND mind will become. 

The best part of eating a whole food plant-based diet is that you’ll be getting healthier physically and mentally. Your body won’t have to work as hard to process all the junk, you will begin to have more energy and focus. You mind will become clearer and hopefully; you will begin to have the energy needed to focus on your mental health and taking the necessary steps each day needed to create a life that supports your mental health. If you don’t think you can fully commit to eating this way, then do what you can to clean up how you eat each day. Simply eliminating processed foods or cutting out alcohol can make a big difference. Hopefully as you slowly make healthier choices, you will begin to see and feel a positive difference in your mental health. Feed your body and feed your mind on how you want to feel each day. 

I’ve listed a few of my favorite plant-based resources below. I hope you find them resourceful if you decide to pursue this way of eating for your health. 

Websites

www.forksoverknives.com

www.shaneandsimple.com

www.monkeyandmeinthekitchen.com

www.plantstrongfoods.com

Documentaries

What the Health

Forks Over Knives

Game Changers

Cowspiracy

Food Inc

Books

The China Study

How Not to Die

Plant-Strong: Discover the World’s Healthiest Diet

The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World

If you haven’t downloaded my free workbooks and journals, be sure to go grab them now HERE. They can be a great resource for you or your loved ones.