A sports and performance psychologist who has advised the US Olympic team and big-name US sports teams says a simple iPhone exercise can help improve your focus …

CNET reports.

Ross Flowers is a clinical, sport and performance psychologist who served as a senior sport psychologist for the US Olympic Committee from 2008 to 2012. He’s also worked with professional sports teams, including the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Lakers, Rams and Clippers. 

When asked for a hack anyone can do to start harnessing focus like a professional athlete, Flowers said a “quick and easy one that everyone can do” is to build up attention. To get started, he says, pick up your phone and stare at the grid of apps before you.

“Give yourself 10 seconds” to memorize as many apps as you can on the screen, Flowers said. “Write them down,” he said, as a test for yourself to see how many you can remember. Then, once you get good at remembering them, move to a different screen or “go to something larger.” 

Flowers says that this kind of exercise can train the brain to pay close attention to details, and focus your mind on what it needs to do right now, rather than being distracted by extraneous factors.

Other tips collected by those who advise Olympians include practising mindfulness, focusing attention on your breathing, and getting into the habit of immediately doing the tasks you dislike rather than allowing them to build up in your head into a big deal.

Photo by Przemyslaw Marczynski on Unsplash