Contrarily to a lot of comments here, I don't do much exercise, I don't eat particularly well more often than not, nor do I sleep much. That said, I'm sure a healthy lifestyle does probably help to an extent, and it's definitely not a bad thing generally speaking.
In my case however, this is definitely not what helps me "get and stay in the zone", or concentrating as people used to call it.
The first thing, which I guess is not that easily replicable, is that I used to be fully deaf, and I can get myself in that state of mind pretty much whenever I want to. It's basically turning some sort of autism switch on and off, which essentially involves removing yourself from your environment. I know a lot of meditation can eventually get you to the same point.
The other thing which probably sounds really obvious is staying motivated. I always have several tasks on the go so I try to break them down into less/more interesting tasks. When your motivation is high, go for the least interesting tasks, when you start feeling your motivation getting low, pick one of the more interesting tasks.
I think it's also down to work habits and experience. I've worked crazy, intense hours in my life, simply because I didn't have a choice. The more you do it, the more you don't want to do it, so the amount of time you can spend un-distracted in one go will slowly increase.
One final tip, which is probably going to sound stupid to most people, is keeping rhythm. I play a lot of music and I constantly feel/hear a rhythm in everything. When I occasionally find my mind going idle, I remind myself of the ambient rhythm (tap my fingers together and whatnot). I see my mind going idle as being out of sync in an orchestra, if that makes any sense.
In my case however, this is definitely not what helps me "get and stay in the zone", or concentrating as people used to call it.
The first thing, which I guess is not that easily replicable, is that I used to be fully deaf, and I can get myself in that state of mind pretty much whenever I want to. It's basically turning some sort of autism switch on and off, which essentially involves removing yourself from your environment. I know a lot of meditation can eventually get you to the same point.
The other thing which probably sounds really obvious is staying motivated. I always have several tasks on the go so I try to break them down into less/more interesting tasks. When your motivation is high, go for the least interesting tasks, when you start feeling your motivation getting low, pick one of the more interesting tasks.
I think it's also down to work habits and experience. I've worked crazy, intense hours in my life, simply because I didn't have a choice. The more you do it, the more you don't want to do it, so the amount of time you can spend un-distracted in one go will slowly increase.
One final tip, which is probably going to sound stupid to most people, is keeping rhythm. I play a lot of music and I constantly feel/hear a rhythm in everything. When I occasionally find my mind going idle, I remind myself of the ambient rhythm (tap my fingers together and whatnot). I see my mind going idle as being out of sync in an orchestra, if that makes any sense.