As I sit down to type this, I’m reflecting on the hypocrisy of writing about focus whilst knowing I’ve had a distinct lack of it today. Writing this has been at the top of my task list, and yet I’ve been distracted by emails, alerts, checking messages and then finding another I’d not responded to… I’ll call today ‘busy’, but all the while knowing I lacked focus.
Truth is, we could not create a more distractible generation if we were asked to create it in a petri dish. Our brains are bombarded with more information in a single day than someone born 300 years ago had in their entire lifetime.
The result is a frenetic level of task switching, a 30% decrease in our attention span, and the rise of social media and childhood screen time directly correlating in a 40% increase in ADHD diagnoses.
Lack of focus (distraction) is attributed to increasing fatalities on the road and at work, elevated anxiety and agitation, lower productivity and cognitive function, poor sleep, increased procrastination, and the rise in ADHD.
This week, we completed over 200 Wellbeing Checkins for our clients, giving customised plans for mental health or helping identify how each client could ‘future proof’ their wellbeing.
The lowest scoring items:
When I sit down to a task I can focus on what needs to be done
I have difficulty turning off thoughts when I need to
I spend more time on social media than I plan to
In a world where most of us are drinking from a firehose every day, the ability to be selective about what we spent our cognitive resources on, is a modern day super power. If you watch Olympians over the last weeks, they got off social media, ditched their phones and put their headphones in to manage where their focus was.
They knew there was one task that mattered. Performance is better and contentment higher when we are focused. They are the moments we are ‘in flow’ uninterrupted and doing the simplest of things like combing the dog, watering the garden or watching a child sleep.
Our minds know what we need to thrive, be creative and peaceful. Small things that can help:
Frequently ask yourself “What needs my focus now?”
Resist the urge to be distracted by controlling inputs
Select time blocks where you are deliberately in the present
Limit social media
Where our focus goes, our time goes. Where our time goes, our lives go.
Time to choose wisely.
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