When you need to focus but your brain won’t cooperate
Making friends with the whims of concentration
Please enjoy this sample narration from my brain last week while I was attempting to work on an Important Thing:
Argh! The cat’s licking is driving me crazy!! I wonder what’s on Twitter? (opens Twitter and reads a few entries)
I need to do that THING! Argh! Quit farting around! (closes Twitter) Okay, now work. (attempts to start the THING)
I wonder why those bees are hanging around outside my window… (ponders) What’s in my email inbox? (checks) Wait – what was I doing – oh! The THING!
Argh!
Two hours later, the THING was not done.
When I was a kid, it was the same scenario except I was supposed to be cleaning my room. I’d get distracted by some fascinating thing (shell collection, old books, etc.) in the attempt and my mom would speak from another room, “I don’t hear any cleaning going on in there.”
It used to drive my mom batty. Now it drives ME batty. If I had an employer, I’d have someone to keep me on task (maybe). But, like many, I am self-employed and sometimes get hopelessly off-track and can’t get back on.
Traction or distraction?
If I had traction, I would be moving forward with the THING. But in the scenario above, I was completely distracted and unable to focus.
If you have ADD or just think you do, maybe you can relate. We all have days like this. In fact, one of my favorite authors, Ned Hallowell, theorizes that even those without ADD may have the same behaviors when trying to juggle too many things.
If you get distracted like this periodically, it’s pretty normal. But, since it’s hardly a desirable place to be in very long, you might be wondering what to do about it?
Moving toward traction
Bouts of distraction happen. That’s just how it is.
Everyone has different symptoms when they’re feeling distracted, but the outcome is usually the same: you’re busy, but your work’s not purposeful.
Since I really believe it’s your office’s job to support you, sometimes making small adjustments to your space can help you feel less distracted so you can focus better.
Notice
Small adjustments come from the little things you notice around you. Be curious for a moment about what’s distracting you. On the crazy day I described above the sun’s glare was bothering me. I noticed the cat’s repetitious grooming. I looked around me and saw multiple open project folders were vying for my attention.
All of the things you notice are great information.
Adjust accordingly
Once you realize what’s pulling you off-track, take a couple of minutes to manage your experience. Remove the attention-grabbers. Your sanity is worth it.
For myself, I closed the blinds to keep the glare out of my eyes, I moved the cat off my lap, I put a project away that was messing up my desk, and closed the other blinds because the sun moved (well, technically, the earth moved).
Anyway, managing my experience helped me concentrate enough to start the THING.
Except when that doesn’t work
I tried to start the THING and got distracted. Again.
And then I humbly realized: I can’t bend focus to my will. Concentration can only be managed. Even in the clearest, most refreshing spaces sometimes people still can’t concentrate.
When focus is an Inside Job
When adjusting your external space doesn’t work, it’s time to look inside yourself and find out what is really happening. It’s what I call an Inside Job.
If your brain is zipping along at breakneck speed – while you’re compulsively checking email, Facebook, Twitter, and photos of your dogs all at the same time – it’s a symptom.
Sometimes you need a break. Or a glass of water. Or a 2-week vacation. No matter which way you slice it, your brain needs to be allowed to run free.
A desk can drag you down
Once upon a time, people moved around. They walked places, moved their bodies for work, rode animals, collected their own food. Frankly, it wasn’t that long ago.
Today, I know a lot of people who, for work, sit at desks for a large portion of the day. Me, for one. Now, that’s not such a bad thing. If not for the internet, Inspired Home Office wouldn’t exist.
But for many people that natural, vital movement is gone.
What to do about it
That compulsive internet checking is an attempt to meet the need for movement, except that it doesn’t work very well.
If you beat yourself up because you can’t concentrate, take a fresh look at what’s happening.
Robert Fritz, another of my very favorite authors, believes that taking breaks is vital to creativity. Who hasn’t gotten a good idea in the shower? Or out walking?
If you’re not productive and feeling antsy, move. That’s right. Get on up and get away from your desk. Do something you like. You’ll be surprised what good it’ll do you – and how much better you’ll concentrate when you get back.
Organized under Cultivating creativity, Sanely self-employed. Labeled as ADD, desk, distraction, focus, movement, procrastination, productivity, self-employment, self-talk.
206 days ago,
Michelle Marlahan said:
Jen – I remember reading this when you sent it out via email… and it was such a relief! The fact that *you* get distracted was reassuring =) as well as your comparison to “not that long ago” when we actually moved around and worked with our bodies. This gave me the permission to get up when I need a break! Thanks for starting the bog. Now I don’t have to wait for your emails for inspiration!! xo
205 days ago,
Maggie said:
Wow…this really hit home with me. Sadly, having an employer doesn’t seem to be helping me with this lately (which brings me a lot of shame), but I think the fact that it is indeed a “symptom” is spot on. I need to be moving in another direction, and this is just one more scattered voice telling me that. Thank you for this lovely piece.
205 days ago,
Maggie said:
Oh, and I still have problems cleaning my room, and that drives me batty, too.
205 days ago,
Trish Bruxvoort Colligan said:
Ah, Jen… Thank you for this.
I’ve been quietly hanging around here for a few months, and your Voice always brings me home a bit more to myself. Ned and Robert have honored places on my bookshelf, right next to a stack of “organize this”, “take care of that”, “meditate here”, “harness the power of your ADHD there” titles. And try, try, try as I might, the clutter bug is ever on the loose, and the Organizational Goddess in me is as elusive as ever.
Even so, your words invite me home to compassion and love for this wild, woolly, creative, river spirit in me that has so much to sing about. With joy. With gratitude. And so, my supreme thanks to you are in order.
Thank you.
With a bow of lovingkindness….
205 days ago,
Magda said:
Jen~
The need to focus always seems to be my biggest challenge when facing so many deadlines at one time. Just the mere thought of the upcoming deadlines is an overwhelming feeling in itself and causes me to not want to think about them, so I gladly get distracted. Sometimes I wonder why the older I get, the more the focus issue is a problem. Thank you so much for the enlightenment…it helps me to not be so harsh on myself, as I am my worst critic!
204 days ago,
jennifer said:
Isn’t it amazing how much pain we can inflict on ourselves? I know the intention behind it is positive (to prompt action), but (whew!) what a toll it takes.
203 days ago,
jennifer said:
@Michelle – (cracking up) Yes – even *I* the great and mighty OZ. You do know that I have ADD, right? I went to pay my bills this morning online. Easy enough, right? The bank’s homepage had an “upcoming classes” link, so I clicked it (forgetting about the bills). I ended up on a completely different site. After I closed the browser window I was like, “Okay. What was I doing?” I started to laugh and thought of this article. “Paying my bills. Riiiight.”
Distraction is natural. Play with it.
@Maggie – (hug) I hear you.
@Trish – You are magnificent. I bow in honor of your wild river spirit.
@Magda – Ah! The Multiple Deadline Debacle! Ain’t it the worst?! Gentleness is so key.
The way I like to think about this is that our creative self is a lot like a child. We’d never dream of dumping 16 complex tasks on a 7-year-old… and yet that’s a choice we often make with ourselves.
If a 7-year-old really *did* have competing deadlines, how might you treat her, Magda?
200 days ago,
Johnett said:
Jen – I want to thank you for this entry. I am in the process of moving my office from one end of our school’s campus to another, changing my job title (which I fear means keeping some unwanted “other duties as assigned” that don’t go with the new position), and trying to de-clutter/re-love my house at home. A lot to handle, for sure! But this entry helps me to ease up on the gas a bit when my brain goes into overload and I can’t even figure out whether to start with this box of books or reorganize my pen/pencil drawer (which got mixed up in the move.
I have just completed your Compassionate Course on Clutter, and I made sure I kept the letters (in their cute little box) in a place where I KNEW I could find them and re-read them…and re-read them..and RE-reread them!
No perfection yet. Still struggling with how to get the answering machine hooked up to the phone (when it was so EASY in the old office!), but I can look at your blog, reread a letter, or just sit back and look at the little plant on my desk and have a deep-breathing moment. Thanks for all of that.
Now, when you want to help me tackle the garage, let me know.
146 days ago,
Lizzy said:
This is excellent! Thank you. I don’t have ADD, or ADHD, but am creative and get easily side tracked at times… I’ve now been for a walk, sorted paperwork into project files, tidied my desk, and my brain has started to work again!
146 days ago,
jennifer said:
@Johnett – Wow. I’m just grinning. Thank you so much for sharing this.
@Lizzy – Yup! Celebrate you! You are creatively amazing!