Focus: the Beast of Practice
In a first article, I covered the importance of focusing and broached some elements that supposedly made focusing easy and natural.
But… is focusing as natural and easy as it seems?
Take a good look at your agenda.
Then think again!
It’s incredibly hard.
Why is focusing super hard?
Even though our brain is made to deal with one task at a time (see Part 1 Focus: The Beauty of Theory), there is a stronger, opposite effect at play.
Distraction generates novelty, and novelty triggers dopamine in the brain. Dopamine being the pleasure chemical of the brain, this biomechanism encourages us to switch our attention.
A parallel to this is… nature: it tends to scatter in order to survive! But unfortunately, the energy needed to create and maintain new sprouts is energy taken away from the main trunk.
I love how Arnold Schwarzenegger frames this particular point :
“I hate plan B […] It means you start thinking about plan B and every thought you put in that, are thought and energy you take away from plan A”
As a gardener, you need to make sure the tree is focused on growing its main trunk. Not only is it more aesthetic, but it also ensures that the energy is maximized for the tree.
Designers and behavioural economists have explored this aspect thoroughly, and we are now surrounded by notifications, pop-ups and sounds.
And this has extended socio-culturally: we are all pushed to accept bigger scopes in our jobs, interact a lot more, lead more activities. This triggers more ideas, more topics, more projects: more noise eventually.
Today, everything is presented as an opportunity, and distractions are everywhere. Overstimulation is the enemy number one of focus.
And this is not all… there is a short-term high cost of concentrating on one topic. It requires closing doors. But as human beings, we love to have options and to explore.
Psychologically, we associate choice to control, which our reptilian brain associates to survival. So we crave having options: it makes us feel in control. As Steve Jobs sums it up :
“We try to do very few things well. Focusing is hard, because it doesn’t mean saying yes, it means saying no”
And this type of behavior starts early! Every day, I see my kid (3 years old) spending his day taking out all his toys because he wants to have a choice about what to play. We have all behind us years of practice at keeping options open we need to unlearn.
Last, but really not least, what makes it the hardest about all this, is reaching the right level of focus. Because that right level is painful: as a rule of thumb, here is what Howard Gray recommends as the right level of focus for entrepreneurs :
“Get so narrow that it’s claustrophobic, nerve inducing. So it almost hurts.”
Ouch.
Some of us are more equal than others
Fortunately (or unfortunately !), some of us are much better at focusing than others. ISTJ people (as per the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) have an innate ability to focus, can work steadily towards a given goal, regardless of distraction. Whereas ENFP are very imaginative, see life as an infinite list of possibilities, and struggle the most to focus.
Which type are you? Do you agree with that description?
For those of you that would like to improve their focus, the good news is that focus is a muscle. You can train it! Working on it will make it easier and easier to do.
Knowing this, I thought I’d share some good practices or concrete exercises I came across to increase one’s ability to focus.
Some keys to getting better at focusing
Here are three ways I’ve practiced over the past two years :
1. Force yourself to say “no”.
Let’s be clear: saying no is not natural.
Say it a little at first — what matters is progress! Then you can increase your level of requirements and also practice your way of saying it.
Concretely, here are some questions to ask in order to say “no” a little bit more.
a/ To decide whether to say no to someone’s idea :
- What is the problem your idea is supposed to solve?
- How do you know this is a problem? What is its magnitude? Its frequency?
- What could we expect from solving this problem? (impact, alignment with company priorities…)
b/ To prioritize projects on a roadmap :
- Did I try to do too much last time?
- How many objectives can I pursue given my resources? Which resources are limiting? (This is a KEY question fighter jet pilots ask themselves all the time)
- Once the roadmap is done: is there a project that did NOT make it to my roadmap but that I’d yearn to do? If no: prioritize more.
- … and take into account that we generally estimate very badly the resources we need.
Some frameworks exist as well. The 3 I personally prefer for prioritization purposes are :
- RICE : Reach/ Impact/ Confidence/ Effort
- Eisenhower matrix : Important/ Urgent
- SIEVE : Stalling/ Identification/ Evaluation/ Vision/ Effects
2. Focus on your behaviors, not on your goals.
Concentrating on what you control leads to effective changes.
Let’s go back to my parallel with gardening: I wanted to grow strawberries this summer on my small balcony, in Paris. A lot of parameters actually influenced if the seeds would turn into a plant, that will produce flowers, and then fruits. I concentrated on what was at my hand: watering it, removing weeds every day, and ensuring no pests invaded it. By doing this, I actually maximized what I could do to achieve my goal.
By focusing on your behaviors, you’ll create quicker feedback loops and give yourself opportunities to reward yourself to create sane habits accordingly.
That’s why you need to…
3. Practice daily
Every day, ask yourself if you have been working on what you were supposed to. Have you been focusing on the right topics? This is the kind of question creating the feedback loop I was speaking about.
Those are valid for professional work of course, but also for your personal projects.
Otherly said… the old adage “slow and steady wins the race” still is best days ahead!
To wrap up on this article — keep in mind that by doing less at one time, your brain will thank you, and you’ll be significantly better at delivering. Despite the natural ability of the brain to concentrate on one topic at a time, an opposite and stronger effect, relying on novelty, makes us crave topic-switching and defocus. The good news is that focus is a muscle you can train, and that simple questions can help you implement a daily routine that will make you better.
“Muhammad Ali did not become heavyweight champion of the world by punching twenty people one time each. No, he became the champ by punching one guy twenty times.” (Seth Godin)
Do YOU have difficulties to focus? Have you found this article helpful? Happy to hear your feedback in the comments, or directly on Twitter @NicoBeytout
Extra special thanks to Mike Krestyn (former F35 instructor in the USAF), Rémi Guyot (VP at BlaBlaCar), Benjamin Dupont (Product Manager at BlaBlaCar), Paul Dalmasso (lawyer at Chemarin & Limbour), Anouk Falgas (Compliance and competition manager at Saint-Gobain) for reading early drafts of this article, the Corp Comm & Brand team at BlaBlaCar for proofreading and the header illustration, and to my lovely wife for taking the time to help me with this article!
