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http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20170925-the-surprising-tricks-to-help-you-focus-at-work

By Caroline Williams卡洛琳·威廉姆斯

25 September 2017

放鬆精神

波士頓注意力和學習實驗室的喬·德古迪斯（Joe DeGutis）和麥克·伊斯特曼（Mike Esterman）表示，當你需要長時間保持注意力時，少即是多。在大腦成像實驗中，他們發現保持注意力的最佳戰略是專注一段時間，然後短暫休息一會兒，之後再重新集中精力。整體而言，時刻繃緊神經的人會犯更多的錯誤。

Don’t try so hard

When you need to focus for long periods, less is more, according to studies by Joe DeGutis and Mike Esterman at the Boston Attention and Learning Lab in Massachusetts. In brain imaging experiments, they found that the most successful strategy for staying on course was to focus for a while, and then to take a short break before going back to concentrating. People who tried to be ‘on’ all the time made more mistakes overall.

類似地，阿姆斯特丹自由大學（Vrije University）的克利斯蒂安·奧利弗（Christian Olivers）進行的研究發現，當人們被告知放鬆精神，想想其他事情，而不要始終集中精力時，他們的注意力資源能夠得到更大範圍的延伸。

Similarly, research by Christian Olivers of Vrije University in Amsterdam found that people’s attention resources stretched a little bit further when they were simply told to back off and think about something else instead of concentrating fully.

這或許是所有針對注意力的研究中最有用的結果。我們對大腦瞭解得越深，就越會發現壓力是專心的敵人。所以，一定要花些時間做點能讓你感覺平靜且能夠掌控的事情，運氣好的話，工作的事情都會迎刃而解。

This, in fact, may be the most useful outcome of all the research into focus. The more we know about the brain, the clearer it is that stress is the enemy of concentration. So take the time to do whatever it takes to feel calmer and more in control, and, with luck, the work will take care of itself.