How? Look into meditation, hypnosis, prayer, etc. Their are many ways to access this part of your mind. Find what works for you.

http://http://mhspsychology.blogspot.com/2005/12/freuds-iceberg-theory.html

Diet also plays an important part in the ability to concentrate and focus on getting things done. Key to this is the 5 ‘meals’ routine, which caters for the much-needed in-between snacking. Just a cracker or 2 or a small tub of yoghurt can make a huge difference.

Whilst it is a valuable skill to be able to block out distractions, I find I sometimes become too detached and block others out anyway…anytime. I need to develop controlling my mind to quit and rest (,”)

Seriously, this is one of the best articles I’ve seen on tuning out the distractions. One thing I found helpful was practicing mediation. Try it sometime – thinking of NOTHING. It’s really difficult, but a matter of training as well. Good practice for those of us with overactive imaginations and multi-tasking tendencies!

I disagree based on the following: No matter what I’m thinking about there always seems to be “headroom” space I’m not using or the ability to focus more deeply. Based on this, I don’t ever feel like I am giving anything my full 100% concentration. So while I may be using well over 5% of my brain it seems like I always have room for improvement.

I do see that is would be possible to give something 50% of your concentration and have the rest taken up by distractions. So while you may be using you entire brain, it isn’t focused. From this standpoint we may be saying the same thing. However, I still think most people have capabilities that go beyond what they use–even when accounting for distractions.

As for geniuses I think there are different types, but some people’s brilliance comes from not skipping over what other people fail to notice. Einstein’s theory of relativity is a good example of this.

@JunglePlayer – Telling jokes is a good idea!

In the meantime, I’m going to tackle on of the major distractions in my life – all the rubbish I let build up around me! Piles of paperwork, much of it irrelevant and out-of-date. Makes finding important stuff so much harder, and constantly stops me in my tracks.

Clear the rubbish, clear my mind! Purge!

Excellent observations, thank you.
Sue

Once he tried that on me:
“What is sweet and swings through the jungle? — Tarzipan.” My fingers were instantly a jungle…

Also, I’d like to point out that the theory of us using only 5, 10 or 15% of our brain capacity is an urban legend, which finds its origin in the discovery that we use only part of our brain to think. However, our brain houses a wide diversity of cognitive facilities and connections, ranging from motor skills to audio/visual cortexes to lingual facilities, etc. etc. It turns out we do utilize our brain to full capacity.

As for ‘geniuses’: that’s the weirdest interpretation I’ve seen as of yet, but thank you for widening my scope nonetheless!

A suggestion that I have is to have something similar to a golf pre-shot routine, where you go through certain physical motions in succession. You do this every time before a shot in exactly the same manner.

After a while, as soon as you start your routine, your brain knows what is coming and automatically gets “into the zone”. So if you need to focus on some work, then practice having a certain work related pre-shot routine as well.

Close the door, set the keyboard in a particular way, sit up in your chair a particular way, stretch in a certain way, tell yourself something. Whatever it is, make sure it is identical each time. Before you know it, just by closing the door and starting the first couple of the other gestures will trigger your brain to get ready to get down to business.

Works for me….you can give it a try.

-Arif

THANK YOU. (I’m afraid I can’t use bigger typefaces for saying that)
…but.. really…
THANK YOU