1) Meditation in the form of working out: The key here is the meditation. Having regular times that you clear your mind and focus on nothing but what you're doing helps focus in other areas of life. My personal preference is intense exercise with headphones in. The music gives a harmonic rhythm that helps drown out any other thoughts and prevents my mind from wandering. Lifting heavy weights gives me something to focus intensely on and not think about the outside world. It's also extremely important to not bring your phone to the gym or watch the TVs at the gym.
2) Systematically externalizing your thoughts: I find that my thoughts feel more cluttered and disjointed the more I try to keep in my head at once. It's important to find a good and reliable system for organizing and managing everything that might occur in your head on your computer. For example, I use OmniFocus to manage anything that I might want to do ever - small tasks to big long-term goals. I use Pocket to save any reading that I want to do later. I use YNAB to budget and manage my money. I use Evernote for any random notes that I have for myself. I use Google Calendar to schedule any event that might need my attention. By utilizing tools to augment your brain capacity, you can effectively offload a lot of the processing you would normally do. It's important that you use these systems regularly otherwise they'll atrophy and you'll go back to keeping everything in your head.
1) Meditation in the form of working out: The key here is the meditation. Having regular times that you clear your mind and focus on nothing but what you're doing helps focus in other areas of life. My personal preference is intense exercise with headphones in. The music gives a harmonic rhythm that helps drown out any other thoughts and prevents my mind from wandering. Lifting heavy weights gives me something to focus intensely on and not think about the outside world. It's also extremely important to not bring your phone to the gym or watch the TVs at the gym.
2) Systematically externalizing your thoughts: I find that my thoughts feel more cluttered and disjointed the more I try to keep in my head at once. It's important to find a good and reliable system for organizing and managing everything that might occur in your head on your computer. For example, I use OmniFocus to manage anything that I might want to do ever - small tasks to big long-term goals. I use Pocket to save any reading that I want to do later. I use YNAB to budget and manage my money. I use Evernote for any random notes that I have for myself. I use Google Calendar to schedule any event that might need my attention. By utilizing tools to augment your brain capacity, you can effectively offload a lot of the processing you would normally do. It's important that you use these systems regularly otherwise they'll atrophy and you'll go back to keeping everything in your head.