Whetting the blade: preventing blur of focus
Being focused and concentrating on a particular thing is, looking at it from the reverse perspective, a question of not thinking of anything else or doing anything else than what’s in front of you. So it’s about setting the right filters and blocking out distractions (in addition to any other mental exercises you may take to get you on the path).
Here’s a couple of tips, rules and ideas to pick from.
There’s some that I generally follow to keep my mind undistracted:
- No instant messaging
- No email notifications
- Look unavailble
- Social Networking on a schedule
- No casual browsing
Particularly when I set out on an hour’s task or two, there’s a couple more:
- Get the clutter out of the way
- Set up a dumpster
- Go offline
No instant messaging
Instant messaging is great for collaboration, but it also is a great distraction. For me, the latter is the greater. It adds another path of synchronous communication with a very low barrier, and a flood of things coming down that pipe that really have an asynchronous meaning. I prefer to be available by phone only if synchronous communication is required and not give everyone the opportunity to pop up a message on my screen at any time.
There are some that remain on IM and are permanently on “DND” or “unavailable”, but what’s the point there?
© Ove Tøpfer, www.pixelmaster.no
No email notifications
When people write by email, expectations vary wildly. Some people write email and sit in front of their computer waiting for your reply. Some expect that their message is read within a couple of hours at the latest, if no “out of office” is received.
But email is not synchronous. Once I had understood that, things became easier. An email received does not translate to a reply that needs to be written right then. It does not even mean I need to read the message. Courtesy and general expectation dictate that the message gets across within a day or so. That expectation can even be managed differently with most people, but you will find it creates misunderstandings and sometimes irritation to leave your email untouched for a couple of days.
For your daily work, at any rate, do yourself a favor and shut off email notifications, both visual and audible. Even a counter badge on your mail app will nag you until you at least had a look if one of those 12 new emails might be important or no. You’ll find 2 that are interesting, which does nothing but blur focus. Keep reading mail for when you want to read mail, not for when new messages want you to read them.
Some even go so far and read email on a schedule (e.g. at noon and at 4 pm only).
© Dimitri Castrique, http://www.thebend.be/personal/
Look unavailable
If you’re not available, make sure that can be seen. Set up physical barriers that people need to get past before they can distract you. How you do that depends very much on the situation and your surroundings, and also on how much it is accepted that you make yourself unavailable while you work:
- put on bulky headphones (classic)
You don’t need to listen to music or anything. Just the presence of headphones over your ears will let people think twice before they ask you something and will prevent any casual comments that are just a hit on the back of your head while you’re trying to concentrate. And if someone decides they need to talk to you nevertheless you can still make it harder and pretend that you haven’t heard. - set up a “DND” sign
If making yourself unavailable is accepted where you work, simply express it by setting up a DND sign on your desk - consultation hours
I have seen people set up signs that give times when they are available for questions and discussions, with an intent to block out being disturbed at any other times. This seems to work quite well for doctors ;-) In the environments where I have worked, I haven’t seen anyone who was able to pull that through, and it was carrying things too far. - get out of the way
If you can, simply get out of shared space, hide in the basement until you are done with your important task.
All of these of course only apply if you actually are unavailable and are not good Mon through Fri, 7am to 9pm (or whatever your working hours are ;-). Information work of any kind lives by collaboration: this is not for loners :)
Social Networking on a schedule
Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and all the other social networking platforms have a wealth of information, with um… varying degrees of significance. Stay in touch, but don’t let it eat up your time, and don’t let it blur your focus. Tapping into either of these is guaranteed to open a couple of threads that dangle loose in your mind when you move on to the next thing.
I try to use these only on schedule or on particular occasion (i.e. I want to say something, and not catch up, or there is actually information I am looking for as opposed to “let’s see what’s up on facebook”).
No casual browsing
When you drop into a state of lower mental energy, lose concentration and need a break, then let your mind relax. The best approach is typically to counter this state with physical activity, but at any rate don’t give your mind new input.
That is, if you just can’t go on with that sales report / business plan / wireframes / whatever: don’t skip to casual browsing. You may or may not want to set up some helpers (like setting your browser’s start page to “about:blank”).
Get the clutter out of the way
Before you start on a task, get your physical and virtual world clear of all the irrelevant stuff (to the degree required and sensible — this is very much a thing of personal preference and of how great the mess is that you start out with: it might not be worth or possible to tackle it before doing something if you wouldn’t ever get to actually doing what you intended to :-P )
What you might do:
- Get things you don’t need off of your desk
- Get things that ring other bells outside of your field of vision
(like e.g. the photo of your dog which permanently reminds you that you must set up an appointment with the vet) - Close unnecessary applications and/or clean up your computer’s desktop
Set up a dumpster
Make sure that while you work on a particular task, there is something in reach where you can dump any other things that come to your mind along the way. There will always be something that comes to you by association while you work. These thoughts are often valuable and at the same time distracting.
Don’t lose these thoughts: some associations are rare, and if you don’t capture it, it might be lost for good or for a long while.
Don’t linger on these thoughts: you have something that wants doing, and for now, you must continue writing the essay on the influences of oil hazards on automotive buyer’s fuel consumption awareness, and not order fuel oil before prices rise with the approach of winter.
Everyone has a different dumpster for these things. For me it’s a piece of paper and a pen when I’m away from my laptop, and when I’m working at my laptop, it’s Ctrl-Alt-Space to bring up the quick entry window of Omnifocus, so that it directly lands in my trusted system’s inbox (in GTD parlance).
Go offline
If the task allows it, go offline in all ways you can afford: turn off or mute the phone, cut your internet connection.
This prevents externally triggered distractions, but it also ensures that you don’t walk into habitual traps (like checking your mail, checking the news, see what’s going on on facebook).
What’s missing?
I’m sure there’s a lot of other techniques people use to stay focused and prevent distraction from the work at hand. If there’s any that are important for you, share them in the comments.
