The Path To Focus: Rebuilding Concentration

Earlier this year I read the excellent book Deep Work by Cal Newport. The book gave plenty of excellent tips and pieces of advice surrounding the subject of focus and productivity.

The premise of the book is simple; in the modern world there are a myriad of things designed to distract us and keep us engaged with trivial matters. All of the best work is done free of distraction and requires increased levels of concentration. Therefore, like any other skill, focus is something that needs to be learned and nurtured.

The book had quite a profound effect on me, because even though I was aware of these distractions, I hadn't really paid attention to how badly they were effecting me. So I started to make some changes in my life and slowly began ridding myself of petty distractions.

Lately though I have found myself slipping into my old ways and getting very easily distracted. Whether it is stopping a task I'm in the middle of, or pondering what my next Facebook post should be, I have been struggling to keep focused.

At the moment I am involved in a bunch of offline projects that require me to be calm and focused, therefore I am revisiting the subject and am making a bunch of changes that should get me back onto the path to focus.

Social Media Blackout

1. Facebook
   Like 2 billion other people around the world, I have a Facebook account which I log on to far too often. Therefore my new resolution is to keep it to the weekends.

2. Steemit
   Due to what I see as the general decline in the Steemit platform, I haven't been posting or even engaging as much as I had in the past, however it is still a distraction that needs to be dealt with.

3. Business Forum
   Even though my business forum is extremely useful to me and is not just a frivolous endeavour, I've found myself using it as a kind of social media.

Solution:

I have decided to restrict all visits to the above sites on weekends only. With the exception of Steemit if I need to post an article. If need be I shall use the Stay Focused app to block those sites on a weekday.

Concentration Training

1. Chess
   I have written before on the benefits of playing chess to increase concentration. At the moment I have implemented a rule that unless I am logging into a work-related website, then I must visit lichess.org first and play at least 20 minutes worth of chess.

2. Sudoku
   I've only recently discovered the game of Sudoku. Of course I've known about its existence for some time, yet without actually trying to play. Lately I've found a version for my phone, and I try and play at least half an hour a day, as it requires long periods of concentration.

3. Playing Card Memorisation
   Earlier in the year I got into memorising the order of playing cards. Using the labelling technique whereby you attribute a famous person to each and every card in the deck, I was able to memorise 32 cards in a row. However I fell out of the habit and I deeply regret doing so as I'm sure I'd be up to the full 52 by now. So I'm pledging to myself to start it up again and not stop till I can remember the whole deck.

4. Thought Periods
   As I often tell my daughter when she or her friends say they are bored, it is actually good to be bored. The brain needs periods whereby it is not trying to concentrate on anything in particular and has the time to just simply contemplate and think. These are the periods when ideas are formed and focus is trained.

Accountability

I've made this post because human beings have a cognitive bias whereby they are more likely to stick to things they publicly declare. Which is why it's a good idea to be really sure of something like a political allegiance before announcing it to the world.

If you too would like to use this post as your accountability record, please feel free to use the comment section to commit to any future actions.

Good luck!

Cryptogee