Five Ways to Improve Your Focus
Nubie: On his blog, Guru is writing about Five Ways to Improve your focus. I am quoting that for you.
Guru:
“Many people, especially we creative types, have trouble focusing. I
myself have had trouble focusing from time to time. I’m continually learning
new things, which is good. But at some point, you have to take action. If I’m
always learning, I’ll never put that knowledge into practice. Instead, I’ll go
from idea to idea, never seeing any idea through to completion.
That’s not to say it’s bad to have multiple balls in the air at once. But
even a juggler coordinating the movement of 3, 4, 5, or more objects, he does
one thing at a time. Throw the ball A from the right hand to the left. Throw
ball B from left to right. Catch ball A. Throw ball C from right to left. Catch
ball B. Throw ball A to right. Catch ball C. And so forth. He can never be
manipulating two balls at once.
That’s the way it is if you want to get stuff done. You have to focus on one
task at a time and see it through to completion. So if we have trouble with
focus, we’ll have trouble getting stuff done.
If you’re a creative type, like me, here are 5 things you can try to improve
your focus:
- Accept that you will
never know everything. Even in your narrow field of expertise,
you will never read all there is to read. You will have to take action
without having read everything. Furthermore, there are many excellent
resources you will never be able to read. Accept it; move on. - Keep track of how you
spend your time. I do this with a simple log. When I change tasks
or end a task, I add a line noting the time and what I’m doing now. This
is the first step to controlling how you spend your time. Moreover,
sometimes just the act of writing down how you spend your time can make you
aware enough to use the time more responsibly. - Set a goal at the
beginning of each day. I’m talking about a bite-sized
accomplishment. This is something that takes you further toward your
long-term goal, but it’s something that you can complete in a day. It’s
something that by the end of the day, you can say, “It’s done.” Put
together a month’s worth of such accomplishments, and you’re burning
rubber. - Limit the time and
energy you spend learning and researching. This goes hand-in-hand
with the first item on the list. It’s very easy to get hung up with all
the interesting things I’d like to read. Off-load them, and get back to
them later. (Or never.) That’s
what del.icio.us is for. - If you know what to
do next, do it! If you’ve learned enough that you can tell in
what direction you ought to be going, shift into action gear. It’s okay if
you don’t read any of those interesting blog posts or emails for a week,
as long as you’re applying stuff you already know. Unless you’ve
discovered the secret of telekinesis, it’s better to take just one step
than to think about even a hundred.”
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