Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
no scribble-scrabble
I received my first letter grades in 2nd grade. They weren’t good. The teachers told my parents that I was very bright and inquisitive, but that I talked too much (those of you who know me are laughing now) and doodled in the margins when I should have been paying attention to the teacher.
For the next ten years, every day when I would leave for school my dad would say, “No scribble-scrabble, no chatterbox.” My mission was to learn to focus, to stay on task. It took me quite a few years, but I got it. Today, I can honestly say that if there is one thing that I know in life, it is that I am capable of intense focus—as long as I know I don’t have to do it for very long.
Meanwhile, the world has become so much more distracting. Tweets, apps, texts, Instagram, Pinterest: They ping and beep, constantly pulling us away.
Sometimes at work I feel like my entire job is leading clients back to the task they’ve wandered away from. “Let’s finish this,” I’ll say as they disappear into their phones, or an e-mail or the next room.
I think focus can be developed, just like any other muscle. Focus is a habit. People have lost the habit of focus: They don’t read the way they used to, they don’t write the way they used to, they jump back and forth between tasks, losing precious seconds every time.
It is hard to focus when stuff is coming at you in little bibs and bobs all day long.
I say resist. Turn it off. Shut it down.
The holidays are a great time to go on a technology and social-media diet. Try to sit in one spot and read for an hour without falling asleep.
The key to teaching me focus turned out to be time. When I challenged myself to sit still and focus on one thing for half an hour, I could do it. To this day, I use this technique and to this day it still works. I can multitask—but everything is so much better when I don’t.
Make developing your focus your resolution for 2016. It could pay dividends both personally and professionally.