Interesting article. Ironically, while reading it I started to think about how I didn't have this problem when I was younger. I could hyperfocus on a book or video game for 12 hours straight, while today I can barely read a chapter without thinking about what I have to do the next day. Makes me wonder if it's a fact of age, bad memory, the depression I went through at the time or just fewer responsibilities.
David Allen, the inventor of the popular Getting Things Done (GTD) task/time management system, stressed the importance of a "trusted system" in keeping one able to relax and focus on one thing at a time, even as a grown-up with lots of responsibilities.
If you keep your task management system absolutely up to date, i.e., it stores everything you plan to do eventually, then you really can trust it and relax in the knowledge that you don't need to track TODOs in your head. It becomes an extension of your brain, leaving your primary brain free to relax and focus on whatever you're currently doing, even if -- especially if -- you're not doing anything in the present moment. But this doesn't happen if the system is leaky, i.e. you slip up and start tracking some TODOs in your head.
Maybe I should read that book, but my experience with tracking TODOs just made me even less productive because after a certain point I could feel my fight-or-flight response kicking in when I looked at my TODO list. But I guess that's a different problem :p
That was my experience with every todo system I have ever implemented.
I finally found a todo system which worked for me, namely writing up every todo in a list. On Sundays I distribute the tasks to different days of my next week day.
If I don't get the task done for a weekday, it's completely fine. I just move it back into the long list, so it gets distributed next sunday.
If I notice a task has been cycled like that a few times, then I delete it, it wasn't important enough for me to overcome the guilt associated with the task.
I'm not sure if the system I came up with was what actually fixed my todo anxiety, but in case it was I figured I would share it.
I agree, I always feel like tracking every single TODO takes more time and effort than actually doing some of them. It was a bit too rigid for me - that sort of system is designed for a computer, except I was the computer doing the task.
What works for me now is writing my most important TODOs on a whiteboard and not erasing it until I complete it. The limited space forces me to prioritize. It's also obvious which items have been there the longest, either indicating lower priority or mental blockages. It helps that the ink is harder to erase the longer it sits there too :)
FWIW I highly recommend reading the GTD book. I implemented it regliously for a couple of years and loved it. I don't stick to it as much now, but the principles/framework are still helpful to me.
Identifying which "projects" you have lying around in your to-do list (to-do items that will require more than one atomic task to complete), and the weekly review process were particularly valuable takeaways.
I struggle with this. For me, computer is the issue. There's always something to do on the computer, and the reward always comes faster than for any other task. There's no such thing as doing a single thing with it, then moving on. There's always an email, a notification, a feed.
My computer-free days feel a lot like the old days.
Same with me. I’ve had my computer prominently in my living space for my whole adult life. Try doing a prolonged activity that makes computing impossible. I went bike touring for a month a few years ago and felt like I had reconnected with a missing sense of thoughtfulness in the absence of constant interneting. The feeling lasted for a while afterwards. I just wasn’t as enticed by the box of lights with words on it. It’s about time for me to do it again.
Not a fixed day, but it's usually after I feel like I've wasted the whole day on the computer. I'll spend that evening finding a place to ride my bicycle or a museum I'd like to see, and generally make it easier to go right out the door.
I’m working on a tool called Amna - and it can help with this. For example, I always have too many tabs open, or sometimes I forget why I opened a new tab. Amna pins the current task you’re working on up top, and saves your browsing session by task, so even if I wander it can all come back.
I have a particularly difficult time with mind wandering. My kids and wife complain often that my mind wanders too much and I don’t pay attention to the conversation. Has anyone had this issue and solved the problem. In my mind wandering, I usually am the protagonist of some story. It has become problematic to the point where it has become a problem and is affecting my life - can’t get anything done.
Yes, absolutely! I would talk to people, have my mind wander a bit then have to guess what they just said. 99% of the time I was really good at guessing, but it led to some awkward situations.
In my case, it turned out to be undiagnosed ADHD. In fact, "Do you have trouble focusing on conversations you're having?" is one of the regular screening questions psychologists use for it.
When my therapist first suggested I might have ADHD, I actually didn't believe her. It took a bunch of reading about ADHD to change my mind; in hindsight, my understanding of ADHD—based on popular culture—was pretty far from reality. Doing a bit of research and reading about ADHD from the perspective of people who had it (as opposed to the perspective of, say, teachers dealing with ADHD students) really helped. I found Driven to Distraction[1] a particularly good overview, with a lot of insights and stories that resonated with me 100%.
Since getting diagnosed, things have gotten much better. Just knowing about it was a real relief and let me start building habits to deal with it more effectively. Later on, stimulants and meditation have both helped even more.
ADHD is spectacularly badly named. You can have it and be the opposite of hyperactive! You can be too attentive! It’s being able to control your attention that’s the problem.
Practice focus with gradually increasing duration. Eliminate distractions through willpower (or configuration if you must). Deliberate, spaced, repetition of focus duration. There are no quick fixes.
Deliberate and repeated practice is a great idea, but in my experience trying to use "willpower" to focus is actively counter-productive. Instead, I've found that practicing mindfulness meditation and "letting go" of thoughts when I notice my mind wandering works far better.
I've been using Headspace[1] as an introduction to meditation and it only took a few weeks of regular meditation, working up from 5 minutes a day to 20, for me to feel a real difference. I didn't know what to expect going in—I was a bit skeptical of the whole idea, to be honest—but I'm glad I stuck with it.
That's not how it works for me, sadly. After a good run, my mind still wanders, I literally daydream about random stuff for up to an hour (or even more)...
I mean it is an interesting article and all, but I miss the scientific evidence? It is a lot of statements that are clearly derived from the author‘s experience, but can they be applied to everyone?
I've been into mindfulness and meditation for quite a few years, and this article is squarely in that arena. However, something that bothers me about this article is its emphasis on work-related productivity as the primary goal of mindfulness and focus. Cultivating this kind of brain change is a big undertaking, and I find it demotivating to think that the main beneficiary should be the capitalist goal of increased productivity in a workplace setting.
Think bigger! I prefer to think that the primary goal of increased focus/mindfulness is increased happiness, joy, and life satisfaction. Any work-related productivity increase is a convenient side-effect. Work will come and go, but you have to live with your brain every day for the rest of your life. Imagine what it would be like to be able to happily focus on spending time with your child, or reading a good book, and really be present in that moment.
There are alot of people that really love their work, and want to experience it more deeply. In fact for many people, a working situation aligned with their values and life goals can really give them meaning. Your situation might be different. As someone who loves their work and who's mind wanders, I quite appreciated the article :)
