Focus Is A Skill

Michael Hyatt wrote in his book, Free to Focus, "...focusing on everything means focusing on nothing. It's almost impossible to accomplish anything significant when you're racing through an endless litany of tasks and emergencies."

Imagine trying to shoot a dozen arrows at a target at the same time. How many would you imagine would hit the bullseye? How many would even reach the target?

We are overexposed to information and circumstances that are competing for our attention. Think about the various news feeds, emails, text messages, group chats, notifications, phone calls, meetings, side bars talks that interrupt or distract us every day. Chris Bailey in his TedTalk on How to Get Your Brain to Focus suggests, as a consequence of the abundance of information we're exposed to, our brains have become so overstimulated it craves distractions, affecting our ability to pay attention to anything for longer than 30-40 seconds at a time before we seek out another distraction.

This lack of focus limits our ability to think with clarity and depth, envision new possibilities, draw from past experiences, find new sources of inspiration and remain calm and responsive to an array of situations.

Give yourself a week or a day and assess how much time do you spend on your phone or computer, managing to-do lists, responding to emails and text messages, scheduling meetings or seeking out problems to fix. How much time do you make unnecessary work for yourself that leaves you feeling behind, disappointed, anxious, and frustrated.

We need to consider our ability to focus as a skill or a muscle to be developed and that requires practice and discipline to improve. And like going to the gym to workout our bodies, we need to create a space that encourages focus.

This may require you to turn off your phone, notifications and alerts, or close down your browser, email and other applications you typically leave running. You may have to intentionally allocate and protect time for focused activity, tasks or thinking, this may require you to participate in fewer meetings or phone calls. And incorporate mindfulness building exercises throughout your week or day. This may include taking long walks, frequent breaks, and meditation.

The paradox is, by doing less you can accomplish more and with a greater sense of fulfillment, creative freedom and peace. The point of being more productive should be about getting the right things done while creating the space to enjoy it and not burning yourself out.