Some Perspectives
Let's start with Focus
“Focus” first presents like a lighthouse on a rocky outcrop that constantly scans 360 degrees on the look-out for things that are different, interesting and/or potentially harmful to us, which begs the question how do we improve it?
Let’s face it, in today’s world we are all guilty of exposing ourselves to a myriad of distractions and information overloads. This is more dangerous than it may first sound as one can easily fall into the trap of simply reacting to the world and all the noise it offers and in doing so lose their capacity for self-control and focus when they most need it. It’s an important personal reminder that the dangers here go beyond immediate detriment to one’s personal productivity and also can damage their general ability to focus and maintain attention, because focus is a capability that needs to be developed over time.
Taking on the Focus Challenge
Managing focus begins with an appreciation that what triggers our focus in the first place is likely to a combination of what we’ve been primed to look out for as well as what we randomly detect courtesy of our brain’s sensing functions. The notion of priming is probably better understood and helps explain the utility of goal-setting, learning objectives and problem solving disciplines (define the problem) in their various contexts. Essentially, priming preps the brain to be on the look-out for items that fall within that pre-defined scope as relevant and beneficial.
Perhaps less well understood and operating at a more sub-conscious level is the constant sensing taking place via the limbic system (thalamus & amygdyla) and visual (occipital) cortex. Upon deeper investigation, what we discover is this is akin to targeted x-ray like scanning of our terrains where each of pick-up our own selection of data and what we might observe, detect or pick up knowing that is likely to be different from what others do. This is why we should be open to the premise that there are many truths, that witnesses can and do observe different parts of incidents, that we can be blind to our own biases, and that our experiences even when physically together in the same environment will differ. In practical terms, there will always be a need to engage with others in learning dialogues where we explore observations together and align on what our respective points of focus have been in the same set of circumstances.
Remember these Focus Essentials
- The first of these is the transient nature of focus. Being conscious of the high energy consumption that comes from holding our focus or paying deep attention is important – as it explains in part why our focus is always on the move and we can be easily distracted by new or emerging information and why we might become exhausted after 15-20 minutes of intense scrutiny.
- The second consideration is to avoid the temptation to get more done by multitasking. It seems the old saying of ”give more work to the busiest person as they will get it done” got hijacked somewhere along the way and is commonly mis-interpreted as meaning multi-tasking as good. Reality here is that attention is a limited energy resource and we can only deeply focus on one thing at a time and that multi-tasking really means we are switching our attention between tasks. This switching comes at a cost as the mind takes time to recalibrate towards the connections needed for the new task. When mapped, it is clear that there is a carry-over period where part of our attention (and limited energy) remains with the previous task and it takes some time to give full attention towards the new/next challenge. To be clear, this is not to say we cannot master multiple things – being multi-skilled is very plausible albeit it is best developed in the appropriate sequence and one skill or task at a time.
- The third consideration is that maintaining attention is more than an exercise of willpower, and in many respects is impacted by the emotions we are experiencing at the time, In this respect, there is a connectedness across various corteses and systems that are setting a balance for how well we are focusing. Finding the balance of being emotionally invested in what we doing but not consuming too much energy by way of stress seems to be the balance that is sought to be achieved, particularly in the context of learning and linear (analytical) decision making
- The final consideration is one of caution and that is that attention or focus is not a cure-all for all types of decisions. I think it is easy to exempt those small actions or routines where our mastery allows us in some ways by-pass the attention required for new learning/decisions and rely instead on muscle memory but it’s a bigger story than this alone. What’s revealing is that creativity and complex problem solving benefits from a lack of focus; creating opportunities for the brain to wander the memory bank investigating sub-conscious constructs allows concepts to come together in different ways not previously relied upon or used. That’s why we should all heed the advice from others to make time for those showers, sleep and rest periods in the sun!