Develop Outward Focus

by Alan Pritt

An outward focus is something that is almost never talked about in books on improving memory. But it is incredibly important.

Why? Because you cannot remember what you don’t pay attention to.

I’m going to say that again.

You cannot remember what you don’t pay attention to.

Most systems concentrate on mnemonics, they concentrate on memory systems. And this is good; they’re important. But there are other areas that are just as important.

One of these areas is developing an outward focus as opposed to inward focus.

If the information is not entering your senses, if you don’t see it, if you don’t hear it, smell it, taste it or feel it, how do you think you’re going to remember it?

This sounds completely obvious, but, in practice, most people don’t maintain an outward focus.

Instead they hear something, and then they begin daydreaming about it, which leads to them thinking about something else and they gradually drift off into their own little world...

We may look, but do we really see?
We may listen, but do we really hear?
We may touch, but do we really feel?
We may eat, but do we really taste?
We may inhale, but do we really smell?

Too often we walk around with our eyes closed. We don’t pick up on the little things people say. We don’t know the names of the roads we walk or drive down every day. We don’t know the colours of our friends’ eyes.

When we don’t pay attention, we miss out on what we’re supposed to be remembering.

When memorising some things you have to step inside yourself for a moment and work out how to connect that information to what you already know (possibly using a mnemonic). Hard subjects, like learning a language, will certainly require this. But after you’ve consolidated a fact into your head, you have to remember to come straight back out again, and continue listening. If you don’t, you’ll miss out on taking everything in.

We tend to concentrate on what we are most interested in at the time. So if you’re really hungry you are going to find it difficult concentrating on the book you’re reading. If you’re worried about an exam, you’re going to have trouble enjoying yourself with your friends.

In many ways this is a good thing. It means you are compelled to get certain important things done. So if your concentration breaks for a good reason, you should give it due attention. Make sure you get those bills paid, make sure you revise for your exams, make sure you are ahead with your deadlines, and make sure you eat properly. You may as well do them, because you can’t stop thinking about them anyway.

This will automatically improve your outward focus. But sometimes there are things that you can’t do anything about. For example, if you’re on a diet, you may feel hungry all the time; yet you still have to get on with your life. Or if you have already taken that exam, and you’re just waiting for the results, you should be able to put it out of your mind and enjoy the celebrations.

To do this you need to really learn to live in the moment. You must learn to be totally in the present.

Leave daydreaming for special times. Daydream when you decide to. When you close your eyes, or when you walk in the country instead of the city, or when you’re alone in your home.

You should be able to choose.

If you can’t, you’ll miss so much. We cannot extend our lives, but we can make our lives deeper and fuller. When there’s something that you really need to take in, be there. Take in that data before it disappears and you miss your opportunity.

This is easier if you find interest in everything you do. Direct your conversations to areas you find compelling. Ask questions about the situation and try to answer them. Make predictions about what’s about to happen in your environment. Try to memorise a person’s face by looking for eye colour, wrinkles, nose shape, moles...

Think back to a time when you were totally engaged in something. Maybe it was work, maybe some game, or maybe you were really getting to know someone well. Really think about this moment. Close your eyes for a few moments and think about what it felt like to be in this moment.

Try to get better at the way you interact with your environment. What is the main focus of you being in a particular place? If you are talking to a friend, try to find out as much about the friend as possible. If you are eating, try to decipher the different flavours. If you’re walking home, focus on your sense of direction, and on the softness of your walk. If you’re reading a book, try to visualise it vividly. If you’re watching a movie, try to predict the plot.

Many people at school see a new exercise book as a new start. The handwriting suddenly becomes neater, margins are drawn, titles are underlined, and diagrams are shaded evenly. There is an intense desire to do things to the best of one’s ability. And the outward focus is intense. So live more like you keep starting a new exercise book.

Gandhi said: ‘There is not a moment when I do not feel the presence of a witness whose eye misses nothing and with whom I strive to keep in tune.’ Strive to set a better standard for yourself, and you will have to concentrate in order to meet that standard.

Asana Yoga will help you pay attention to your body and your breathing.

Art will also help. Learn to draw and you will learn to focus on the visual aspect of the moment. Learn to play music and you will begin to hear music in every situation. Learn to cook and you will begin paying more attention to the food you eat. Learn to massage and every texture will become more absorbing.

Developing outward focus is a skill in concentration and needs practice. If you simply try to maintain attention while you work, your focus will be on learning that material, not on developing your outward focus. So do it as a separate exercise.

Try the following:

Find a place where you will not be interrupted. A quiet place is better, but somewhere busier is okay as long as you can concentrate without the worry of being interrupted.

Now close your eyes and pay particular attention to what you hear. Try to pick out individual noises. Work out where they are coming from, what they are. You may find it helpful to write a sound down when you hear it. In a noisy place you may find that you are overwhelmed by the amount of different sounds there, so when doing this in noisier places try to pick out one sound and really concentrate on it.

Now do the same with your visual sense. You may find it easier with earplugs. With visual items there is a lot more in your visual field to take in. So focus on specifics things. Choose one object and study it. Take in everything you can about it. Analyse the colours, analyse the textures, analyse the shadings, look for patterns. Really focus on that object.

Now do the same with touch. Close your eyes, put in ear plugs. And just feel the air, feel the breeze on you, feel the clothes against your skin.

Now do it with smell. Wherever you are, smell the air. Can you smell grass, or food coming from the next room, or somebody’s perfume?

And with taste. What is the sensation in your mouth now? We can taste even when we are not eating. There is a taste to the air.

Finally try to combine these states. Go for a walk, and instead of daydreaming, try to take everything in. Notice the weather, the rain, the graffiti, the street signs, the textures on the pavement, the buildings. Really take everything in.

You should be able to stay in this state for as long as you feel it is necessary. Practice doing this for 10 minutes to start off with; then 15, 20, 30, 45 minutes. Eventually you should easily be able to do this for hours on end.

Try writing down what you discover in these meditations, by writing poetry. Don’t worry about the results; you can always keep it private. The most important thing is for you to learn to observe.

This is not to say that outward focus is more important than inward focus. But there are times for each. When we decide it is time to analyse and think about what we’ve taken in, we can then meditate on it.

But only later; when we’re not missing out on something else.