The Forgotten Skill of Our Time | Focus
Have you ever found yourself unable to concentrate on a task due to constant distractions? It feels like distractions are nearly all the time around, making the ability to focus increasingly valuable.
In this article, we will look at strategies to become better at focusing, including blending out distractions.
What is focus and why is it important?
Starting with a definition of focus:
Focus is like a spotlight — the intense concentration or mental effort directed toward a specific task, idea, or object. It’s about giving undivided attention to something. Scientifically speaking, focus involves the selective enhancement of relevant information while excluding irrelevant stimuli.
Being able to focus lets us do more work, and I would say better work. In general, with focus, we have a better utilization/use of time.
A short story from myself to give context to the point. A few weeks ago we bought a puppy. Since then, my attention has been flickering around and the hours I’m uninterrupted decreased drastically. I had to come up with some ways to focus better in the hours the puppy is sleeping.
In other words, the quantity of hours I had was decreasing, so I had to increase the quality of the hours I had left, to get the same amount done.
For every one of us, the ability to focus is important. We are literally overloaded with information.
“In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.”- Herbert A. Simon
Our limited attention time meets in our modern world an overabundance of information. With the ability to focus we can stay focused on the information which is important for us. In contrast, without focus, our attention moves from information to information without getting deep into it.
How to focus?
The following strategies are in no way exhaustive. I’m only talking about those strategies which had a positive effect on my ability to focus.
*At the end of the article, you’ll find the sources I use, where you can find many more techniques and strategies on how to focus.*
The structure goes from Macro Focus to Micro Focus. This isn’t some scientific theory, this is my way of visualization and remembering.
Saying No / Prioritize
On a macro level, we have to prioritize. We have family, work, relationships in general, sports, hobbies, and so on. We have to make decisions on what we put our limited energy and time into.
In Steve Jobs’s words:
“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.”- Steve Jobs [0]
He talks about the idea and innovation space. We can transfer that to what I said before, which macro areas do you prioritize and therefore want to focus on the most? We have to say “No” to things, to better be able to focus our time and energy on more important things. When we say yes to everything we end up doing all and nothing at the same time.
Distraction
One of the biggest hurdles to getting us to focus is distractions. Distractions are things, that take our attention away from a task that we want to focus on.
The psychologist Daniel Goleman distinguishes in his book Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, between two types of distraction, sensory and emotional.
“The sensory distractors are easy: as you read these words you’re tuning out of the blank margins surrounding this text. Or notice for a moment the feeling of your tongue against your upper palate — just one of an endless wave of incoming stimuli your brain weeds out from the continuous wash of background sounds, shapes and colors, tastes, smells, sensations, and on and on.”- Daniel Goleman [1]
Sounds or visual stimuli can lead to distraction. For example when our phone makes a notification sound. It helps to create an environment, where we have as less distractions as possible. Phone out of the room. It is not always perfectly possible, but we can still eliminate a lot.
“More daunting is the second variety of lures: emotionally loaded signals. While you might find it easy to concentrate on answering your email in the hubbub of your local coffee shop, if you should overhear someone mention your name (potent emotional bait, that) it’s almost impossible to tune out the voice that carries it — your attention reflexively alerts to hear what’s being said about you. Forget that email. The biggest challenge for even the most focused, though, comes from the emotional turmoil of our lives, like a recent blowup in a close relationship that keeps intruding into your thoughts.”- Daniel Goleman [1]
Emotional stimuli, in my opinion, are the worst distraction. Even if our environment is perfectly designed for focus, when our emotions inside are going crazy it is extremely difficult.
Let’s connect emotional stimuli and overthinking.
“The dividing line between fruitless rumination and productive reflection lies in whether or not we come up with some tentative solution or insight and then can let those distressing thoughts go — or if, on the other hand, we just keep obsessing over the same loop of worry.”- Daniel Goleman [1]
So, there is rumination, to think about the same distressing thought over and over. And there is reflection, where we try to come up with a solution to our distress.
There are times when I have a solution but still I ruminate. What helps me in this case is to just get into doing. Sitting down and focusing. No matter what. Sometimes it’s forcing with willpower but it helps.
With doing we pull the mind away from the overthinking trigger and focus on that what we want to focus on.
Rest
We can’t stay focused all the time. We need rest.
“Tightly focused attention gets fatigued — much like an overworked muscle — when we push to the point of cognitive exhaustion. (…) The antidote to attention fatigue is the same as for the physical kind: take a rest.- Daniel Goleman [1]
He goes on to explain that it isn’t just important to take breaks, it is important how we take breaks.
Scrolling social media, playing video games, or taking a walk in a crowded city aren’t quality breaks. In those activities, our brain is still extremely much working. Taking a walk in nature, for example, is the thing where we can let go.
Sleep also falls under this point. Good and regular sleep is key. When we are extremely tired our ability to focus goes near 0. So, we have to make sure that we get enough good sleep, which doesn’t just help with focus but with health overall.
This section moves more into the actual techniques and all I copied from Andrew Huberman. Maybe some of you know him, for those who don’t: he is a professor at Stanford and runs an incredible podcast called the “Huberman Lab Podcast”.
I’ll skip the theory/explanation/science part, Huberman is much better at explaining that to you than I ever could.
*The Sources I used are linked at the end of this article. Recommend checking them out.*
Blocking Time
Our bodies follow something called Ultradian Cycles. They consist of periods of high focus followed by a decline in concentration. Ultradian Cycles are around 90 minutes long and can be initiated by ourselves. After those 90 minutes, there is a drop in our ability to focus.
Then we need some rest. Andrew Huberman talks about doing 2–3 of those cycles of focused work.
Important to notice, that for every session, or in general when we want to start focusing, it can take some time to be focused. This is normal.
Non Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR)
Taking a nap or a Non-sleep deep rest session is a great way to high quality “rest”. After a nap, or especially after NSDR I feel energized and can focus much easier. Even 10min of NSDR in the form of “Yoga Nidra” helps me personally a lot. A nap does too. Important, to take this high-quality resting time.
Visual Focus
This technique explained, by Andrew Huberman himself:
“Mental focus follows visual focus. To increase your level of focus on the task you are about to do, stare at a point on a wall or screen, or object for 30–60 seconds before starting (You can blink as needed). You’ll be surprised how this takes a bit of effort — that ‘effort’ you feel is “top-down” attentional engagement (…). Then move into the task at hand. Expect your mental focus to flicker on and off, especially at the start of a work/learning bout.”- Andrew Huberman [2]
Focus applied
When I try to focus, I try to have those things checked off.
I’m not doing all the things all the time. However, I try to get the macro things. Good sleep (rest overall) and no distractions (sensory + emotional) as far as possible.
What do you do to focus? I’m interested in your answers!
Outro
I want to leave you with some words by Shane Parrish to think about, he wrote in his great article, Focusing is an Art, Not a Science the following:
“(…) [E]veryone will go about the Art of Focus in their own way. It takes experimentation, dedication, and an understanding that no one can do it for you. (…)
(…) [I]n order to build an awesome career doing hard but satisfying long-term work, you need to build your ability to focus for hours at a time. You need to learn hard skills. You need to let go of multitasking, distraction, and the temptation to be “busy”.”- Shane Parrish (slightly edited, hope the context is still the same) [3]
Thank you for taking the time to watch the video. I hope you got some value out of it!
As always, I wish you a fantastic day!
For more, consider following me here on Medium and my YouTube channel “Invisible Compass”: https://www.youtube.com/@invisiblecompass
Sources:
[0] Steve Jobs:
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/629613-people-think-focus-means-saying-yes-to-the-thing-you-ve
[1] Daniel Goleman:
Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence
[2] Andrew Huberman
https://www.hubermanlab.com/newsletter/teach-and-learn-better-with-a-neuroplasticity-super-protocol
Blocking Time + NSDR:
https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/focus-toolkit-tools-to-improve-your-focus-and-concentration
[3] Shane Parrish:
https://fs.blog/focusing-art-not-science/
