Learn how to focus
I’m re-listening to one of my favorite books “Peak Performance” by Steve Magness and Brad Stulberg. The most striking thing about the book is the advocacy for sustainability and recovery in addition to stress and rigor.
Notably, the authors also discuss the importance of focus. Not necessarily focus in the macro sense—you can and should be a diverse human—but rather, focus in the micro sense: at any given moment, how many things are on your brain?
- When you’re doing a squat, think about doing a squat.
- When you’re creating content, think about that content.
- When you’re writing javascript, think about writing javascript.
- When you’re meeting a friend for coffee, look them in the eyes and have coffee with them.
Crazy stuff, right? It’s harder than it sounds.
One of the amazing things about technology is that it augments these experiences and enhances focus and productivity, when used correctly.
One of the less amazing things about technology is that, like many things in life, no one is going to sit down and walk you through how to use it properly.
So you have to figure it out.
Figure out how to organize your life such that you can focus on one thing at a time. Do that thing really well for a few hours, then take a break and do another thing. Categorize the things you like into a hierarchy that ladders up to a really cool goal.
Do that for weeks / months / years / decades.
Concurrently, improve your process and learn how to be efficient. Learn how to focus better. Learn how to say not to things that are not important.
It’s taken me almost 30 years, but that’s what makes me happy. Give it a shot, it might make you happy, too.