Wouldn't it be great if we could be perpetually focused on our jobs, get the constant thrill of accomplishing what we set out to achieve without concern that distraction - an event, a streak of boredom, an urge - would step forth and tear us away from the journey that comes with bringing what we want done to completion? We often hear we should avoid distraction; we should stay focused. Yet the reality of our lives comprise an outpouring of evidence showing perpetual focus is impossible: events will show up; we will get bored; urges will make us caricatures of our productive selves. So the solution may be to revisit our ideas of focus, readjust our perspective to remediate our devotion to it, securing it in ways evident in our productive lives. A helpful place to look may not be in our ability to remain perpetually focused but to the place where we are adept at meeting focus with distraction of a healthy kind.
We can separate distraction into two distinct forms: healthy distraction and unhealthy distraction. We can imbue each with the following meaning:
- Healthy distraction: It leaves us re-energized, re-focused and ready to re-engage our plans. E.g., going for walks, eating ice-cream, going out with good friends.
- Unhealthy distraction: It leaves us feeling out of control, disgusted with ourselves, disappointed at our ability to keep promises. E.g., binging on Netflix, instant messaging for hours on end, uncontrolled sexual or drinking exploration.
Of course we can set our investigative lens on the real problem with distraction in its tendency to keep us glued to benign activities that become mind-numbing agents from overindulgence; we can propose that we do away with all of it. But distinguishing between healthy and unhealthy distraction deserves attention because understanding the distinction can be the difference between a remarkable life and a life drenched in misery.
We might find ourselves grappling with a project we are clueless as to how to progress. The deadline is tomorrow but we need time to think. We need inspiration to get our creative juices boiling. A little bit of screen time always does the trick. Luckily, GoT is about to air a new season. It would be a great idea to revisit previous episodes in order to appreciate the upcoming ones and get apt exposure to a series that stirs our creativity. We slot in our pick. We will watch just one episode. It's now 9pm. We would need to get to bed at 10:30 to meet up with waking up at a decent time, say 2am, to devote ourselves to bringing our project to completion. It begins. The cascading sound of that iconic theme song reverberates our skin through our speakers, assuring us of the wonderful time we are about to have. The episode ends. It delivered eh-peak-ness. Thank god it's just 9:48. We can watch just one more, our very last, and sleep at 11:30, we after all can function perfectly well on 3 hours of sleep. The next time our eyes meets our clock it reads 5:12am. Something within us sinks. That last episode of GoT was splendiferous, but its epicness is not enough to appease the now loud voice in our head shouting, 'You are such a loser. Your incompetence will shine in the crappy presentation you will render in just two hours. Something that would have been avoided if only you had just stuck with the plan, just focused.'
The voice in our head comes from a good place. It wants to keep us on track in our pursuit of accomplishment, happiness and fulfillment. It is like the angry person who shouts not particularly because he is full of hate but precisely because he cares so much. Yet, as with the shouting person, its method of delivery sets off a response that takes us further away from where it most desires us to be. It tarnishes our motivation and dismisses our will to re-plan and adapt. It operates within a realm of optimism where our hours are free of foreign events, our capacity to fend off boredom is without limit and, as with the case in the GoT example, our urges are within the tight perpetual grasps of our control. Simply put, it places us within intimate contact with misery. We entertain it because we sense it comes from a place of care, but doing so we stay blind to the damage it does in its approach for reform. Our place, if we are to are to truly engage the thrill of accomplishing what we set out to achieve, is to steer clear of the insidious threat it presents.
To recalibrate our sensibility with respect to our relationship with focus we might turn to a practice known for its capacity to engage head-on with distraction: Mindfulness meditation. Proponents of this practice lay claim that as beginners the hardest thing to do while meditating is to remain focused on a center over as short a time as five minutes. A majority of practitioners claim it is impossible. Even experts, those who have practiced the art for periods extending into years, assert the difficulty involved in keeping attention on a center. As Sam Harris, bestselling author of Waking Up, writes in expression of the difficulty: "even if your life depended on it, you could not spend a full minute free of thought." The solution to this frustration, adept practitioners of meditation propose, rests in one ability: To always re-gain focus gently. To get back to the point where we most need our attention to be, with a care alive to the fact that we can and would most probably fail in our efforts. This ability to reestablish focus with care is where the real victory of mindfulness meditation lies.
This ability to refocus is also where we need to bring ourselves to mastering in light of being productive.
Our lives would be much better if we happened to be on a distraction free island with the sole purpose of freely churning out value. But gaining a proper perspective on distraction and its nature in the real world serves to free us from illusions. We need a healthy relationship with ourselves and focus-reclaiming adeptness in navigating a distracted world.
Enjoy!
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Post Author: P. W. Uduk
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