Focus
One of my all-time favourite topics, the elusive nature of focus.
3 Thoughts from me
I
As someone with ADHD, I run my life with systems designed to narrow my focus. What I can see from my writing desk is a calendar with word count goals for this month, certificates of writing competitions I’ve won, a pinboard with information on the book and series I’m writing tacked up, and a whiteboard for brainstorming. I have one screen. I only have one tab open at a time. And I have colour-coded time blocks in my digital calendar for writing.
II
Creative industries have both a creative and a business aspect. People don’t get into creative industries without creative passion, but the business element can shift focus away from creative goals and drivers. I have both creative and business goals, but when they conflict I try to remember the business can’t exist without the creative, but my creative side will still exist if the business doesn’t.
III
The first time I went to a romance writing convention, I was surprised by the ‘should’s that dominated the thoughts of writers, from beginner to experienced. “Should” is about doubt and regret, and there’s nothing that clouds focus more. Instead of thinking about what I should be doing, I try to know and leverage my strengths, my motivations and my habits to achieve my goals with less grit and more ease.
2 Ideas from others
I
Doing hard things gives you practice at doing other hard things, even if at first they don’t seem related. One of my favourite authors was an accomplished guitarist before they were a writer. They might seem unrelated, but both require consistent effort to improve at a long term skill, and require focus and resilience to succeed. Something I took away from improving at acrobatics over 7 years was learning to fail, and keep going.
- Something I took away from Robert Greene’s Mastery
II
When people think about improving focus, they usually talk about hacks, and forget the boring fundamentals. Exercise, good quality sleep, nutrition. Setting the conditions for focus is most of the challenge.
- Something I took away from Focus, Solved by Mark Manson
1 Question
Are you in the right conditions to focus?