finding focus

i had a great conversation with jon r. moore just earlier today. we talked about a lot of things, one of which was finding focus.

we have these little devices which sit in our pockets, or on our desks, or even—for some of us, myself included—on our wrists which blink and beep and boop fighting for our attention all day long. the next newest thing is never far away in time, or space. and when we need to set that down and focus in on a task, it is hard to shut it off. especially for things we maybe don’t quite feel like doing. (if you’re my boss reading this, i love logging my activities and scorecards.)

i’ve found what works for me is taking time, ten or fifteen minutes, to meditate or practice mindfulness and calm my brain. when it has been firing off a million miles a minute—it’s hard to simply flip a switch. in a similar way to how you cool down after a workout, we have to cool down our minds as well. sometimes it’s only then do i really find i can truly focus in on the task at hand.

but once i’m in the flow, i don’t want anything to break it. i know some folks use something like the pomodoro method and work “in sprints” as jon mentioned it—but i approach my work more like popping corn. when you toss a bag into the microwave and hit the button, you don’t keep stopping it every few seconds. as the kernels get to popping, you want to keep that going. but when you notice it starts to slow and takes a few seconds between pops, that’s when you know your corn is about to burn. in the same way, i’ve learned to be mindful of my work. when am i getting stuck, frustrated, or things aren’t flowing as freely as they were a while ago? it’s then i’m aware i need a break. that can be 40 minutes later, or 4 hours later—but i want to keep popping corn for as long as i can before i know it’s going to become inedible.

like anything else, it takes effort to be self-aware. you need to put in the work to learn how to listen to and understand yourself and what you need.

when to calm from within, and when to fire off.

and, maybe most importantly, when you’re about to burn.