If daydreaming is interfering with your daily activities, you need to increase your concentration and you should only daydream at night. To reduce the habit of daydreaming, you first need to understand how bad it is and the benefits of your daydreaming habit. Then, you can use techniques to reduce daydreaming, increase focus, and really focus on activities that focus your attention.
Step
Method 1 of 4: Analyzing Habitual Daydreaming Patterns
Step 1. Understand the benefits of your daydreaming habit
You need to understand why you tend to daydream so you can learn how to change that. If you don't know the cause of something (the real problem), you'll have a harder time finding a solution. Sometimes a person daydreams to escape stress or other painful feelings. This imaginary world makes them run away and avoid negative emotional states. Daydreaming can be a way to cheer yourself up as you envision your dreams coming true. In addition, fantasizing can be related to the need to forget certain information (trauma, painful situations, etc.). Daydreaming is actually also a result because we forget information or memories that we got before.
- List the types of daydreams you have, and what you think are the benefits of daydreaming. For example, you may identify that you are daydreaming while having a conversation with a friend, which helps you predict what will happen and practice responding. Another example is if you daydream about buying a house, it might help you think about a brighter future and look forward to the future.
- Ask yourself, “in general, what is the purpose of my daydreaming?” Do you daydream to escape, distract, or pass the time?
Step 2. Identify your pattern of daydreaming
Understanding fantasy patterns can help you develop skills to reduce each of your fantasies. Do you daydream most of the time at school or at work? Are there certain situations that trigger the habit of daydreaming?
Recognize how often you daydream. Set an alarm every hour. Count how often you drifted off into daydreams during that hour. For example, when you notice you're daydreaming, draw a line on a piece of paper, and so on. This will increase awareness of how often you actually daydream. Sometimes it takes a few minutes to realize you're daydreaming and that's okay, just keep writing every time you drift off
Step 3. Recognize the negative consequences
If your daydreaming is causing difficulties in your daily life such as distractions at work or school, interpersonal relationships, or personal obligations, then your daydreaming habit may be excessive and dangerous. Unfortunately, wandering thoughts can make a person feel unhappy.
List the negative consequences associated with your rich fantasy life. This list could include the following: less time with family or friends, missing school because of not being able to stay focused, not being able to get all the work done because your mind is distracted by daydreams, and family and friends feeling like I'm not listening to them because of me. daydream
Method 2 of 4: Using Techniques to Reduce Daydreaming Habits
Step 1. Raise awareness
You must first be aware of when you start daydreaming in order to change it. Once you can identify the goals, patterns, and consequences of your daydreaming, it's a good idea to start observing when you're daydreaming right away.
Signs you're daydreaming include: not making eye contact during conversations with other people, having trouble focusing on your current task, not remembering what was just said in a conversation, thinking about things unrelated to the current situation, and imagining conversations with other people. other people or picture an event in their head
Step 2. Keep track of your daydreams
Once you realize you're daydreaming, stop and write down what you're daydreaming about, what time it was, the situation or place you were in, and how long your mind was wandering. This will help you recognize when you're daydreaming and understand your behavior patterns better. better.
Ask about the benefits of your daydream. Ask yourself, can this daydream help me?
Step 3. Set guidelines and boundaries for your daydream
Certain daydreams can have bad consequences. For example, daydreaming about someone you don't know very well increases feelings of loneliness. However, imagining people close to you can increase closeness and satisfaction in life in general.
- Choose a boundary that, when crossed, signals you to stop daydreaming. Those boundaries include intimacy, spending a lot of money, or extreme violence.
- Sometimes when you're lost in a dream and it's time consuming, just look at your watch. Looking at the clock is a reminder that shows how important it is to make the most of the present moment because time will never come back!
Step 4. Focus your daydream
The wandering mind can be used for self-reflection and working towards personal goals. Imagination and visualization techniques are common techniques in therapy, especially for treating anxiety and depression. Using visualization techniques, you can focus your daydream on something that helps and relaxes you.
- An example of an imagination exercise is to close your eyes and imagine yourself in a safe place. It could be a beach, a bedroom, a church or anything else that makes you feel safe, calm, and relaxed. Imagine what it's like to be in this place. Pay attention to the temperature, the air, how your body feels, and what sensations and feelings you are experiencing. Imagine how it smells and sounds in such a safe place. Is there anyone else in the safe? What are you doing there? Stay there until you are completely relaxed and ready to open your eyes.
- Online resources can help guide you in practicing imagination techniques.
Step 5. Get up and walk around you
Once you realize you're daydreaming, get up and do something active. This can drain your physical energy, which in turn will help your mind to refocus and reduce the habit of daydreaming.
- Try stretching. Pull yourself up as high as you are comfortable. Then while standing, spread your legs apart and touch the floor (as far as is comfortable for you).
- You can jump in place, run in place, or shake your hand. Try to do whatever is safe and appropriate to your current place and situation.
Step 6. Reward yourself if you can focus
Every time you can complete a task without falling into the daydream trap, reward yourself. This idea is based on positive reinforcement, a component of operant conditioning, and research shows that it increases positive behaviors (such as sustained attention). It also provides personal boundaries (i.e. you won't have fun until you complete a task), and something to look forward to (a reward).
- Try rewarding yourself with something you enjoy, such as candy or other snacks.
- You can even reward yourself with taking a 5-minute break from work. Taking proper breaks can overall increase productivity. Use this time off to do something you enjoy like playing a game or texting a friend.
Step 7. Consider getting treatment
Excessive daydreaming can be a problem if it causes problems in your personal life such as difficulties in relationships, school, ability to carry out work, or other daily activities. If this is the case, a useful option is to undergo treatment.
Contact a psychologist (PsyD, PhD), marriage and family therapist, or a psychiatrist
Method 3 of 4: Improve Focus and Attention
Step 1. Try practicing mindfulness
If you're daydreaming, you're focusing on your own fantasies or thoughts that have absolutely nothing to do with what's going on around you. Mindfulness means being completely present in the present moment.
- Try eating a piece of fruit you like while focusing on what it tastes like, looks and tastes like.
- Use online resources to learn about mindfulness and try out the technique exercises.
Step 2. Use grounding techniques
Grounding helps you escape emotional pain; This method is especially useful when dealing with difficult situations and emotions and can be a healthy and useful substitute for daydreaming or fantasizing. Grounding can be done in any situation and at any moment of your choosing, and it helps to refocus your mind. Once you've done the basics, go back to the basic task or obligation. You may be able to focus more after using certain basic techniques.
- Name the various objects in the room and their different uses.
- You can name any color or animal you can think of.
- Remember not to spend too much time doing the basic technique, otherwise you'll just be using it as another form of daydreaming. Limit yourself to about 1 minute, then return to what you were doing before.
Step 3. Get enough sleep
Lack of quality sleep is associated with increasing daydreaming habits. If you don't rest your mind at night, your mind can be overactive during the day. A person who has trouble sleeping also experiences an increase in depression, anxiety, and health problems.
- Create a sleep schedule (sleep and wake times) and get at least 8 hours of sleep per night.
- Try relaxation and breathing techniques to help you sleep at night.
Step 4. Rest
If you feel your mind is disturbed, you should rest. Sometimes when we are distracted, it indicates we have worked too hard. Taking breaks can really increase your overall productivity, especially for brainstorming.
- Try taking a walk.
- Do something you enjoy for a few minutes, eat a snack, listen to music, or watch a show on television.
Step 5. Engage your body and mind
If you start daydreaming when you're not doing anything, like just sitting around, try doing an activity. Moving the body can be very helpful for someone who has trouble concentrating to concentrate better.
- Hold a pillow, stuffed animal, or stress ball that you can squeeze.
- Some people find listening to music while doing simple chores can help them focus. Music can be a partial distraction for the brain so that our minds can focus on what is important.
Method 4 of 4: Engage in Activities That Keep You Focused
Step 1. Find a new hobby
Do and enjoy fun activities that can keep your attention focused there.
- Do something that inspires you, such as taking a walk in a beautiful place, meditating, looking at art, etc.
- Try doing exercises such as cycling, hiking, exercise, dancing, aerobics, and yoga.
- Avoid activities that increase daydreaming, such as excessive television viewing. Watching too much television can reduce creativity and increase the habit of daydreaming.
Step 2. Have a conversation with a friend or family member
People who have adequate social support generally tend to have higher mental health. We need social support to deal with any problem, including wandering thoughts or distracted thoughts.
- Look for people you know well and you feel comfortable with. Then, ask him if they'd be willing to answer the phone and have a chat with you if you're daydreaming.
- You can ask friends or family to tell you if you're daydreaming. This will help you take responsibility for the decisions you have made and increase awareness about your attention span.
Step 3. Less planning, more action
Planning can be a form of daydreaming because you spend a lot of time thinking about a situation and not much time getting anything done. It's time to stop dreaming and start acting!
- Make a schedule and stick to it. If you notice you're daydreaming, get up and leave the situation or do something productive.
- If you get lost in daydreaming, slowly return to the activity you were doing before your mind wandered. Try to accept and not judge yourself.
