Finding focus: your on and off switch

A few months ago I started optimising my personal and professional life for focus. The home office and isolation were leaving too much room for distraction, and in my spare time I was struggling to let go of work thoughts. Sounds familiar? Check out some of these practices that work for me and find yourself some focus.

The following insights I gained while reading the book 'Focus aan/uit' by Mark Tigchelaar, a neuropsychologist who explains how our brains gain and lose focus. The book speaks about 4 general concentration leaks: too few stimuli, too many internal stimuli, too little fuel and too many external stimuli. Luckily, you can upgrade your concentration skillset and learn how to control your on and off switch for focus.

1. Too few stimuli

The first concentration leak revolves around having too few stimuli. Your brain is a supercomputer that gets bored when presented with too few stimuli. To fill up the lack of stimuli, your brain searches for distractions. For example, you are on the phone with someone and meanwhile catch yourself scrolling through Facebook. Let's look at two solutions for this situation.

Smart multi-tasking

In order to gain focus, you can consciously add a second task to an easy 'main' task in order to stop your brain from getting bored and start looking for distractions. Try going on a walk while being on the phone or make small 'doodle' drawings while listening to a presentation. Any task that doesn't require conscious thinking will help you focus on your main task. This means that trying to draw a Mona Lisa does not fall under smart multi-tasking.

Stop switch-tasking

The second practice you can use to gain focus when your brain is bored and looking for distractions, is to stop yourself from switch-tasking. It is tempting to look for new stimuli by quickly checking your email while being in meeting or watching a movie, but this behaviour drastically decreases your focus and the quality of your work. Every time you switch between tasks, a fragment of you brain capacity sticks to the switch-task, leaving you with less brain capacity (and a lower IQ!) to continue with your main task. For example, I am writing this article when I receive an email which I decide to read, because my brain craves the dopamine a new stimulus brings. When I get back to my main task, the writing, part of my brain capacity has stuck to the switch-task, reading the email, which means that I am writing with a lower IQ. Sorry about that.

2. Too many internal stimuli

On the other side of the spectrum, the second leak deals with too many internal stimuli. As I am writing, I am thinking about what I will be cooking for dinner tonight, if I will do yoga or strength training today, that I could use a coffee and that I should give my grandma a call. Our supercomputer brains have stimuli coming through at any given moment, whether you're working or trying to fall asleep.

External harddrive

In order to be able to switch off during your down time or switch on when you need to focus on work, you can do a brain dump of all the thoughts and stimuli that are running through your head. Create one external harddrive, this can be a notebook or a to do app, where you write down all of these thoughts. Now that you've transferred your thoughts from your brain to your external harddrive, you have room to focus on sleep, work or anything else.

3. Too little fuel

Third on the list of concentration leaks is having too little fuel. Focus costs energy and when you run out of energy, your brain will lose its focus. For example, it's close to lunch time and you've been working for 2 hours without a break. At that point you probably start thinking about the pasta sauce that you forgot to buy for dinner, or 10 other things that cloud your mind.

Defocus

In order to focus when we're switched on, we need to defocus when we're switched off. This means giving your brain a short break every 25 minutes of doing small tasks, and a slightly longer one every 90 minutes when performing deep focus tasks. Defocussing or switching off does not mean watching Youtube videos or listening to a new Podcast. Our brain does not regain its energy when it is taking in new information and stimuli, so defocussing means staring out of a window, making a coffee, taking a walk around the block or having a chat about the weather.

4. Too many external stimuli

Lastly, we deal with the concentration leak of having too many external stimuli. Working in an open office or in a house where 3 Zoom meetings are happening at the same time can make you loose focus. It might seem like we love a lot of stimuli, because we constantly refresh the news page or Instagram feed on our phones. The dopamine released every time we see a new article, new picture or new message feels good at first, but leaves us drained by the end of the day.

Clean up

The most simple thing you can do to reduce the amount of external stimuli and increase your focus, is to clean up your workspace. Any object that catches your eye is registered by your brain. That brainpower needed to register the pen, coffee cup collection and old envelop on your desk, cannot be used for the task you're trying to finish. The clutter leaves you with less brain capacity to put into your work. Clean up your desk and put any items that don't serve a direct purpose in a drawer or cabinet. Trust me, it works.

No to notifications

A second practice to reduce external stimuli is turning off the notifications of email, Slack, Whatsapp and other laptop beeps that demand your attention. Every pop-up in your screen will take away your attention from the task you're trying to do and will make it difficult to get back into your focus-zone. Turning of your notifications will also help you to stop switch-tasking. The added feeling of Zen is a welcome bonus.

It's all about practice

The brain is the brain, it loves a good shot of dopamine and we love watching Youtube videos during our work breaks. All I can say is that when you practice making small changes in the way you work and relax, you can create a more satisfied feeling for yourself at the end of the day. Isn't that wonderful?