9 tips to improve your concentration

Your feelings, thoughts and needs both while you have cancer and afterward can make it hard to maintain focus.

Concentration training also consists of learning and paying attention to the following things:

1. Ensure that you are not hungry and that you are well-rested before starting an activity.
2. While focusing on an activity try to stop sudden off-topic thoughts before they take hold.
3. Divide your work into small units with breaks.
4. Don’t do two things at once.
5. Make a note of things to help jog your memory and use a calendar for appointments.
6. Say what you are doing out loud, for example, ‘I am baking a cake.’.
7. Repeat an action that you did out loud to yourself to cement it in your memory.
8. Regularly engage in mentally challenging activities, such as chess, crosswords, crafting or music.
9. And lastly: be patient with yourself!

Author: Dipl. Biol. Esther Witte| Reviewer: Dr. Christian Keinki

Sources:

• Homepage. (2022). Samaritans. https://www.samaritans.org/
• Chemo brain. (2020, August 20). Cancer Research UK. https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer-in-general/treatment/cancer-drugs/side-effects/chemo-brain
• Cognitive changes (chemo brain). (2022, March 1). Macmillan Cancer Support. https://www.macmillan.org.uk/cancer-information-and-support/impacts-of-cancer/chemo-brain
• What is Chemo Brain? (2020, February 1). American Cancer Society. https://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatments-and-side-effects/physical-side-effects/changes-in-mood-or-thinking/chemo-brain.html
• Shapiro, P. J. (2010, June). Cancer Brain Fog. Coping With Cancer. https://copingmag.com/cancer-brain-fog/