57.Describe something you do to keep yourself concentrated

You should say:

‣ what it is

‣ how often you do it

‣ when you started doing it

‣ why it helped you concentrate

Sample Answer:

A couple of months ago I noticed that day by day I was getting more and more irritated 'cause I was unproductive at work just because I couldn't concentrate on the task I was doing. 1 felt I just wasted my time doing nothing. I sometimes literally stared at the screen trying to collect my thoughts. Plus, I got easily distracted. The main problem about it is that once you get distracted it takes about 20 minutes to return to our original task. I was stressed and overworked. My friend recommended me to practice mindfulness meditation in the mornings. l' l l explain what it is. It's simply focusing _completely on what you're doing, slowing down, and observing all of the physical and emotional sensations that you are experiencing in that moment. This is the skill that I really needed to master. She told me to sit still and focus on my  breath, then concentrate on the beating of my heart. The most important thing was not not pay any attention to anything else. But I'm a very active person. So you can imagine... I was absolutely terrified at the thought of sitting still, even for a couple of minutes, let alone half an hour. At first, it was indeed a nightmare. I couldn't get rid of the incessant chatter in my head. My thoughts were driving me crazy. And therefore I couldn't slow down and make my mind relaxed. Plus, it was boring. Despite this, I didn't give up and practiced it every morning. Gradually I got used to it and even started enjoying the process. Just a week later i saw measurable improvements in attention span. I saw that I could easily center the thoughts on what 1did. Later I started directing focused attention towards my ordinary activities. For instance, I practiced mindfulness when I ate. I took time to really chew my food and concentrate on its flavors and texture. Now if l'm working on some task and feel that restless itch to go do something else, I try to bring my awareness to my body and my breath. After a few seconds of focusing on my breath, l'm normally ready to get back to work.