Have you lost the capacity to focus?

An observation: Many of us have lost the capacity to focus. 

In my experience, that statement isn’t so controversial in today’s world. Most of us are aware of how we flit between that big project and our email at work. Or scroll our phones while we watch Netflix.

And yet, I don’t think most people understand the more profound effects of this lack of focus.

Here are some I’ve observed:

• Having to put in longer hours at work

  Do you work more than you’d like to? Most white-collar office workers, in my experience, have abysmal focus. The constant email checking alone!
  
  If you aren’t focused, it’s much harder to make progress on cognitively challenging work. So you’ll have to put in more hours.
  
  

• Never making progress on what matters most

  It might be writing that book, our painting practice, or learning Arabic. Most things that require creativity, learning and growth also require focus.
  
  

• Never feeling like we have enough time

  Most of us could feel like we have more time in the personal time we do have, if we emphasized focused activities.
  
  Here’s a personal example: I find that I can decompress far more effectively with an hour of reading than with two hours of vegging on the internet. Having that extra hour is very valuable to me!
  
  

• Chronic low-level anxiety and tiredness

  When I started shifting my relationship to technology, I realized I had more energy + felt less anxious. It was incredible!
  
  Now, if I have a day when I am constantly flitting my attention from thing-to-thing, I notice that I am more tired, and often have more low-level anxiety. Simply choosing to do focused activities in my downtime and at work for the next 24-hours can make a huge difference for me.
  
  

If you’d like to improve your focus, here are three important truths:  

1. The more you focus, the easier it will be to focus.

In other words: Focus improves with practice. To practice — define a time period, and define what you will do during this time. For example:

• During this next half hour, I will only work on this particular project. I won’t check my email or look at the internet.

• During this hour at home, I will read. I won’t look at my phone.
  
  
  

I’d recommend picking a daily practice to play with. For example: doing one 30- or 45- minute segment of focused, single-activity work, each weekday. Or reading for an hour after dinner.

Pick an amount that feels doable to you. For many of us, even a half hour without checking our phone will feel challenging.

2. The less you focus, the harder it will be to focus.

If we spend our leisure time constantly scrolling Instagram, or checking our email every 10 minutes, it will be much harder to focus during our workday.

Doing these activities trains our brain to expect immediate novelty, stimulation, and pleasure. It’s much harder to “turn on” our focus when we need to.

So if you want more focus at work, you might examine how much you flit from thing to thing in your off-time. Or visa versa.

3. This applies to you, too.

It may be tempting to think that this applies to someone else. But my job requires constant email checking and constantly changing tasks!

I think you’re probably wrong. Yes, even if you have a job which seems to require constant email checking and task switching. Even you can make changes that would make a big difference.

…

Like most things I work on as a life coach, focus is a whole-person, whole-life topic. I’ve helped my clients tackle focus in their personal, professional, and artistic lives.

The good news is that improving something in one area tends to improve it everywhere.

So I’ll ask: Do you want better focus? If so, where can you begin?

…

As always, I’m rooting for you. You’ve got this.

Katie

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