Guide to Focus
How To Make Your ATTENTION SPAN Work for You
The only guide you need to focus
Productivity has never been this important. Everyone has ambitions and is pumped up with goals and hopes. To accomplish them, they set long lists of to-dos. Which is (mostly) to accommodate unrealistic activities and goals.
The to-do lists are simply too much pressure. Our pressurized minds are unable to focus thus hinder productivity.
But I’ve got you, and in this post I’ll walk you through some interesting facts, issues with attention deficits, and solutions to cure your hampered productivity. And I can’t wait to share it with you.
Let’s dive right in.
Studies show humans can focus only for 40 seconds before we get distracted or interrupted. That’s why being busy and productive are two different things. 40% of our daily actions are habits — and habits don’t require conscious efforts.
When we’re performing our habits, we’re essentially in autopilot mode. That means we’re not in a hyperfocus state. It’s quite easy to get distracted in that case.
To maintain your focus, you need a plan of what to do, when to do and how much to do. And you have to be realistic.
Keep it simple, 3–5 tasks are more than sufficient to stay productive. Putting more tasks on your to-do will lead to burnout… and we can’t focus on a burnout state.
Once you’re done with setting tasks, put them in one of these quadrants.
Productivity will skyrocket and you’ll be hyper-focused when your tasks come under the top two quadrants.
Without selective interest, the experience is utter chaos — William James
Our brain receives 11 million “bits” of information in the form of sensory experiences each second. But how much of this our can brain process and focus at once?
Forty of them. Not forty million or forty thousand, but just forty.
Think of your attention space like the RAM of any computer device. Just like in RAM, a limited amount of information can be processed.
Becoming aware of what you’re thinking about will help to clear your RAM. This helps boost your productivity, and it is known as Meta-awareness.
I recall this interesting perspective which helped me to focus better. Whenever you get distracted, do any of these things.
Snap your fingers, knock hard surfaces or take deep breaths. Your mind will stop wandering and you’ll regain focus.
I’ve done this several times and it always worked. The real truth is, you have to make a conscious effort to stop your mind from wandering.
Multitasking and Batching
There’s a difference between the two. Batching means doing two tasks, in which one requires full attention but the other doesn’t. Consider an example: listening to music and cleaning the home.
Tasks like these, when batched / ’grouped’ together, don’t harm our brain.
However, when you’re doing two tasks and both require attention, this is called Multitasking. This hampers brain health in the long run! Avoid it at all costs.
Taming Distractions
To not get distracted by your distractions, make a list of them. Build coping mechanisms to deal each one. Coping mechanisms include purposefully ignoring them, setting productive cues in your environment, etc.
Assume things can go wrong! Come up with solutions to handle problems instead of whining over them.
For instance, if you get distracted by notifications, switch on DND mode. If people disturb you, let them know you’re busy. Be ruthless in protecting your time and energy.
Hyperfocus Rituals
Choose a productive or meaningful object of attention — for instance, your job, or a specific task/goal.
Eliminate as many external and internal distractions as you can. Build a coping mechanism for when distractions do come up.
Set a timer! Learn to bring your attention back to that one thing continuously. The more you bring back your attention back to the work, the stronger this mental muscle gets. Practicing this over time will make you mentally stronger.
Use these hyperfocus rituals whenever you need to work on a complex task.
Now let me share some interesting things which’d help you achieve hyperfocus more easily.
Scatter Focus
It’s your brain’s hidden creative mode. But how to perform this?
Capture Mode
This means letting your mind wander and capturing the thoughts which come to the surface.
People who are in the creative space can take advantage of this. Whenever you can’t get any ideas for your next content, choose solitude. Sit in silence and let your mind wander. It’ll get you solid ideas, tried and tested.
When you’re doing an activity alone, capture mode is turned on. For instance, walking, showering, meditating, etc. If you don’t think you have the time, schedule ‘free time’ in your calendar.
Problem Crunching Mode
Holding a problem firmly and letting your mind wander around it. It’s a great way to get a solution to something that’s bothering you. Your subconscious mind does some of the work for you.
An interesting perspective I got works like this: whenever you have a problem, dump down your thoughts in a journal before you go to bed. While you’re sleeping, your subconscious mind will keep working on it. In the morning, you’ll have more perspective!
In 2021, I wanted to set up my Paypal account, but I didn’t know how to do some technicalities. It took me a LOT of time to figure out. On one fine day my frustration overflowed, and I dropped all my tasks and headed to the phone to make it work. The previous night I wrote in my journal about it. That was when I FINALLY received my payment.
When I read this quote, I could instantly connect the dots:
It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer — Albert Einstein.
Habitual Mode
In this, we engage in a simple task while recording the important ideas that emerge. Here are some ideas that may help:
- Going on a nature walk.
- Running or hitting the gym.
- Meditation.
- Reading something fun and not work-related which can recharge your mind.
- Listening to music or some insightful content (audiobook or podcast).
- Spending time with coworkers or friends.
- Investing time in a creative hobby
- And most importantly — staying hydrated.
As a rule of thumb…
Consume dense and rich information when you have the energy. Consume entertainment/relaxing content when you have less energy.
In general, avoid consuming trashy information like the news — this is a source of stimulation that satisfies your instant gratification but never worth it.
And a word about distractions
Here’s a table provided for your reference.
Identify your distractions and bundle them in different quadrants. Build systems to avoid them and not get distracted.
Now you know how to maintain hyperfocus, stay productive and get the work done.
I hope this blog adds value to your life!
If you liked the insights I shared, consider following my Medium page and I’ll see you with the next interesting content.
