Focus – the curse of always on

Ideas to regain control

“After a great deal of thought, I’ve had to pair back my twitter presence. Please bear with me over the next few weeks as I’ll be drifting.”

I read this from a very active twitter user, as I was loading a pdf on to my son’s Kindle – to give me the chance to read the pdf without distraction. The focus of the pdf is Focus and it is also the basis of a workshop we’ll be running shortly

Focus is an excellent free book by Leo Babauta,  the link is at the end of this blogpost.

Here’s my interpretation of the message – linked to one of my favourite hobbies – photography.

If we want crisp, sharp, efficient results – then we need to focus on the main thing.
And the main thing only. Let’s get the focus on the focus

But it’s oh so easy to find lots and lots of distractions on the way. So you’ve decided to write a blog post, or read a book or prepare a report. But you just have to check your email, twitter, texts and all the other stuff.

Before you know it – the other stuff has multiplied. Your main task (in this case the focus of the focus) has become a ‘by the way’.
And – look, something new to play with. (Why does the voice in my head scream ‘Avoid Facebook’ just here?)

Suddenly, something new has taken over your attention. You’ve forgotten what you were working on in the first place.
Easy – let’s get an overview again so we can see where we’re supposed to be.

Now where were we?
The distractions have caused us to lose the plot.

An interesting aside – the effort to take the pictures above was probably the most focussed  I have been for a long, long time

Does this feel familiar? If so, you’re not alone.

Have a look at Leo’s website, download his book and share its ideas.

All photos by me – yours to use on Creative Commons. Please acknowledge my ownership. (If you want higher resolution copies, please let me know using the form above)