I found an interesting author / podcast personality named Chris Bailey. He wrote a book called Hyperfocus. You can read up on it here.
The book is full of awesome things, many of which I have discovered in my journey during this commitment. He talks about the power of habit, and being on autopilot mode during the day. Learning how to use this as a tool to better yourself. He also talks about reducing distraction in our lives, and focusing our attention on the task at hand. He also talks about why we like to get distracted, the dopamine hit we get from novel things or offensive things that get our attention. However, that is not the most powerful part.
What really got my attention was his concept that he calls, Scatter Focus. Do you have those times when your mind wanders? It is hard to keep your focus on something. Well he backs this up with science. You see the average person gets distracted on average every 40 seconds. He also proves how long it takes you to get back on track after losing focus. These are all interesting, but he actually encourages letting your mind wander!
He even tried experiments that deliberately caused him to get bored, and he did these routine things so set up an environment where his mind would instinctively wander. After about a week of doing this, his brain went into overdrive. Coming up with all sorts of creative ideas. You see when you are hyper focused, you are not being creative. When you are not focused, or scatter focused, you are susceptible to bouts of creativity! This is why my environment is chaotic all the time, I am a creative person to my core. However, whenever I need to focus, I tend to clear off my desk. In fact, I cannot get anything done until I organize my environment. This constant battle between focus and creativity is something that I have dealt with my whole life. Now I understand that it is natural and exactly correct! When I am in creative mode – get messy! See Mom – I knew that I would eventually figure out why my room was trashed all the time growing up!
With Scatter Focus, you allow your mind the freedom to wander and explore thought. Do not overwhelm your mind with input, but rather, let it be on its own and go down the path it will go down. This is why meditation has proved to be so powerful for me. I have learned how to be mindful, being cognizant of what I am thinking about and why. This has allowed me to be creative, but also focused when I do sit down to perform a task. I have already allowed my mind to wander, so it is less opt to do so when I need it.
Bailey also indicates that we do not have much temporary storage space in our minds. That runs out quickly, probably 3 to 4 placeholders before we forget whatever was active just a few moments before. If you have read this blog, it probably already happened to you. Reading, something popped up and distracted you, then that led you to another thing and before you know it, you have forgotten what you were doing in the first place.
The fact is that we get scattered whether you like it or not, so perhaps it is better to plan when you will allow your self time to scatter focus and when it comes time to hyper focus, shut down all distraction so that you can.
Guy Reams (632)
