Asian Efficiency: I remember a time, not so long ago, when I could easily get lost in a good book for hours. The world would fade away, and I’d be completely immersed in the story, turning page after page without a single thought of checking my phone or glancing at an incoming notification. Fast forward to today, and that kind of sustained focus feels like a rare luxury.
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Everyone wants to feel productive. There is nothing worse than having the impending doom of many deadlines and projects weighing on you while feeling stuck and incapable of making progress. I enoyed the comparison to running a marathon that the author made. Maybe it is because I am currently training for a race but it really put it in perspective for me that I can’t expect to be able to focus productively for long hours at a time if I dont work my way up. I also enjoyed how they explained a reduced stress environment. It is easy to say that you need to focus in a place where distractions are limited but phrasing it in a way that compares it to defensive driving. Being on the offensive rather than the defensive makes the focusing much more active. I intend to put some of these “focus stretches” into practice when I need to accomplish a task that I don’t want to accomplish.
I’m sure almost everyone has heard of the recent studies showing how many of our attention spans have gotten as worse as a goldfish’s. That might sound overexaggerated or terrifying, but that’s what makes articles such as these which talk about the navigating focus in our modern age so important. I love the metaphor they use in saying “Focus is a Muscle, Not a Switch” because it’s so true! Life is so much harder when you have big projects or deadlines to try and do it all in one day. Not only will it likely make your work sloppy, but it also completely drains your energy and then you won’t feel (or even be able to be) as productive the next day. As this article elaborates, like working, good focus only comes with practicing intentionality to keep up with tasks, and spreading them across your days. We live in a time where efficiency is so stressed, to a point in which it will often overwork and drain us in feeling pressured to keep up. While many companies and people will exploit this to genuinely drain their workers, everyone can learn from this article in navigating that and doing the best we can, not just with work, but even mundane tasks.
We all struggle with focusing because the majority of our work is on the computer. Personally speaking, I feel like I can get swept up and lost in focus on a project I need to mold with my hands, or do standing up. If this project involves other people in a physical space, I have no problem keeping focus because it is engaging. However when I'm working while sitting down, holding the same physical form over the computer hunched over, I easily lose focus. And this isn't just by reshifting my focus to my phone, but I will get focused on a train of thought and stare at the wall. I feel like this is because we all experience a general fatigue when staying in the same place for too long. I find the sentiment this article gives of training your focus muscle to be very good. You need to train in different places, or keep a certain place/space to focus, and train.
When I first read the title, I thought this would be another guide on how to improve your work ethic similar to ones you find on youtube. Long story short, those guides tend to be for people who can already focus pretty well, at least the ones I come across. However, this article seems to go deep into keeping a good mindset behind your work rather than different work techniques to try. At the beginning of this school year I wrote down a goal to develop better work habits, and this article really helped me think about how to achieve that goal. I really liked the idea of the “why” behind your work. I’ve only used that mindset when training for my job in high school, not really school work. I also liked the idea of defensive driving and the example they gave about Brooks doing his heavy work before his webinar. Looking back, I realized I have started to practice this a little but reading about it makes me think more about how I should schedule my work time.
I think my focus is pretty good but the difference between my focus and the article’s “deep focus” is that instead of focusing out of understanding why i’m doing things my focus mainly stems from stress. Knowing that mountains of work are due often make me focus for hours on end on task after task to clear my plate only for it to be filled up again. I find joy in focusing when I enjoy the content. Sometimes even when I’m excited about assignments or projects the hardest part to begin focusing is in the beginning. When overwhelmed with a large list of to-dos, often there’s a paralyzing feeling of not being able to begin and so I procrastinate by being unfocused doing everything but stating. I think this article makes some good points on how to begin focusing like proactively removing distractions from working environments that I will try myself.
It’s easy to feel as though the best way to get a big project done is to focus on it constantly with minimal breaks. And while this is theoretically the most efficient way to work, as this article shows that isn’t often an attainable task. For me this strategy often ends with a few hours of productive work then a lunch or dinner break and absolutely no motivation to get started on the task again after the break. By forcing myself to focus beyond my actual capacity it feels like I’m being more efficient but in the long run it ends up doing more harm than good. I think that this article helps me to see that it isn’t just me that has these problems. Additionally it helps to see that taking small breaks actually helps with productivity rather than hindering it. In our modern world there seems to be no end to the distractions that we face so having strategies like the ones mentioned in the article for dealing with them is the best way to stay efficient.
I really resonate with the quote, “focus is a muscle, not a switch.” I think about this idea a lot when reflecting on the time I spend on my phone. Often, when I spend long periods of time on my phone, the goal is to zone out from whatever is stressing me out. However, this usually just gives me a break from that stress without actually resolving it. When I put in the effort to calm myself and just give my brain a chance to wonder, I find I feel much calmer in a shorter amount of time. Over time, this has also shifted what I crave doing when I need a break. Before, if homework was overwhelming, I would take 30 minutes to scroll Instagram. Now, I find myself just wanting 5 to 10 minutes to stare at the sky or take a walk. This prospect is also rewarding emotionally in that I feel I am able to reflect on my personal experiences more throughout the day with these small breaks.
I think that this article holds a lot of truth and that it is very reductive to tell people to just “try harder” or “focus” when it comes to doing work. There is an element of discipline that needs to be present in order to do work, so I understand in that capacity, but there is so much more to it. I used to be a chronic procrastinator and would turn in all of my assignments late and at the end of semesters for half credit. Then junior year of high school I put a lot of effort into building a work ethic for myself. Since I’ve gotten to college, and with any new type of work I encounter, I need to understand how I best get that kind of work done (time of day, how long can I actively focus on it, location, what kind of work can I do before/after, etc.). Once I am able to identify everything I can come up with a more effective and productive work schedule since I understand how to build it properly. I also think being able to adapt it quickly (if you have been trying to do something for 20-30 minutes and its not clicking, do something else! Though this can only work if you give yourself enough buffer time of things being due).
How we direct our attention dictates how productive we are. The question that is bouncing around in my head is what is an appropriate amount of time required to get into deep focus? Is a 30 min dedicated study session enough time to enter into deep focus? The reason I ask is because frequently we only have 30 minutes or a single hour free and with my experience I frequently struggle to find those blocks of time super productive. Especially for larger, more complex tasks or assignments, dedicating an hour a day to these topics usually ends up feeling super unproductive due to the requirement to gather your bearings and then start working on the problem. Our worlds are constantly being fed information meaning that developing atmospheres that cultivate deep focus is increasingly difficult, due to the fact that when we are actively working on something our notifications, ads, to online rabbit holes are constantly pulling us away from the task we are intending on focusing on. The article touches on the emotional aspect of focus and how cultivating your energy and building your schedule around when you are most prone to be able to access deep focus is encouraged. Unfortunately this is centered around energy management and there are times in everyone's schedule where all one feels is burnt out, and getting started on the task is what takes all of our attention. As important as Deep Focus is to productivity I still wonder if we are only able to access this form of focus when the stars align and you feel good about working, you understand the goal of the project, and there is a strong desire to do it. These small details will dictate if you can access your deep focus and sometimes the universe just doesn't allow for it.
I have been thinking a lot about the topic of focus and productivity. I have the ability to focus easily and for a long time. In fact I can find myself in the bad habit of hyperfocusing. When I say that people always think I am bragging but it really can become an issue for me because once I start working on something I will not stop or do anything else until it is done which can lead to problems. On the other hand my partner has some raging ADHD and cannot focus on saving his life. I recently made a comment to him about just focusing and doing it faster and it really offended him. I didn’t even think about it because for me I can just focus and do it faster but that is not how it works for him. So while I think this article is helpful and relevant I think it is important to acknowledge that improving focus does not look the same for everyone.
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