Learning To Focus Will Change Your Life.

Learning To Focus Will Change Your Life

If you are going to struggle to finish reading this article, then you really need to finish reading this article. This is exactly the problem right now with modern culture. We find it so hard to concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes without checking our mobile phone or our social media feed.  

How many times have you sat down with your partner to watch a movie or Netflix, and spent most of the time just scrolling through social media? Wondering where the hell the last 30 minutes of your life has gone?

How many times have you been out with friends and family, and there is that one person who is glued to their phones all night, and you’re sat wondering why they even bothered to come out for the evening?

We have a problem with attention in society, and its only getting worse.

ADHD is through the roof. Anxiety is on the rise, particularly int eh younger generation. Kids can’t concentrate in school. Teenagers are finding it difficult to revise for their exams. The issue goes on and on.

I did a poll on my social media the other day asking the question if you could go a whole 24 hours without the internet and your mobile phone. The overwhelming majority of people said that they couldn’t. When asked the reasons why, the common answers were – What if I miss something? What if someone needs to get a hold of me? What if there is an emergency?

Translated to – it will cause me anxiety.

So, here’s where the rubber meets the road: Our phone doesn’t cure our anxiety. It gives us anxiety. Or rather, social media gives us anxiety. Social media is designed to keep you on the platform, and keep returning to the platform as long, and as often as possible. It’s how they make money. Someone once said that “If the product is free, the YOU are the product.” This is why there is no barrier to entry with social media. It is free, because we pay with our attention so they can farm our data, and serve adverts to us.

The difficulty we face, is that even if we are not on our phones and social media, we are constantly getting little notifications trying to hook us back in. Just a quick check, and then before we know it twenty minutes has passed, and he have been staring at a screen instead of viewing and living in the real world.

I have had several creatives come to me recently and ask how I am so productive. Now, I am not one for hating on social media. It’s a tool. It’s here to stay, and it’s a tool that I use a lot for community, networking and promoting my books and my works. I enjoy it, and I find it engaging. But I manage my time on it, especially when it is time to work.  

When we have a lot to do, it is not lack of time that is the issue, but instead, a lack of focus. Do you understand how much you can get done in one half an hour of serious, focused effort?

So, here’s what I do when I want to make sure that I get a list of things done that I need to get done that day.

The first step is I turn my phone on DO NOT DISTURB mode.

Second, is I put my phone at the other side of the room, or in a drawer where I can’t see it. Out of sight, out of mind.

The next thing I do is I remove distractions. I have noise cancelling headphones and I play music, or white noise.

Then, I load up my current project, or whatever I am working on, and I set myself a timer for thirty minutes. While that timer is on, I don’t leave the desk, and I work. I get into flow, and I find myself crossing so much off my list. Then, when the thirty minutes is up, I allow myself a five-minute break to get up. Walk around. Make a coffee. Whatever. Then, when the fiver minutes is up, I work for another thirty minutes. Rinse. Repeat.

You will be amazed the work you can do if you just focus. It takes time. It takes discipline, but it will change your life. I promise you.

-          J