Hindu monk and speaker Dandapani, speaking at the ET Global Business Summit, on Saturday said "epic proportions of time and resources are wasted everyday, because people are distracted and unable to focus," and for companies and people to become more productive, it was essential for everyone to "practice concentration and have control on one's awareness."

A former Hindu monk, Dandapani is a current priest, entrepreneur, and coach and international speaker on self development

He said at the heart of leadership was self service and it was important for leaders to "push the horizon and think long term."

"Most people can't concentrate because they have never been taught to concentrate, and they never practise concentration. We have always been told to concentrate, but we have never been taught to concentrate," Dandapani said

To become productive, it is essential to practise concentration in whatever one does, the former monk said.

It was also important to "realise our time on this planet is finite, not short," he said.

"Once we know that we take very, very different decisions. It forces you to focus on priorities."

It was necessary to have focus in life to have clear priorities, he added. "Nobody is asking you to do the million things you do. In order to focus on something, you have to take the focus off something..."

Defining concentration "as the ability to keep one's awareness on one thing for a prolonged period of time," he said, it was important to control one's mind and awareness, so that one is able to give undivided attention to whatever he or she is doing.

"You could start with giving undivided attention to your spouse while talking to him or her, and then your manager.. When you start doing this more often, every experience, every holiday, every vacation becomes more meaningful. You become more productive, more efficient."

Practice, he said, does not have the ability to discriminate between constructive and destructive patterns, and hence "it was important to invest energy into whatever one does."