Confessions of a scattered mind

I was supposed to smoothly transition from a piece on enthusiasm to something about diligence, as per my clever "to be continued" ending at the end of my previous post. But ironically, and very "un-diligently", I can't focus on the task.

I have all the ingredients ready to bake the cake, it's just that the oven is on strike. No panic, it's not my first rodeo... we'll circle around the distraction.

At one point, one has to humbly accept when they're pointlessly paddling against the current. I guess my mind is resisting, there might be something there.

But as ironic as it might be (that I can't stay on track with writing about diligence), the subject is actually quite relevant : what's the deal with procrastination?

I am sure there is a diversity of profiles, as I have met colleagues and friends that were astoundingly amazing with self-discipline. Usually it was the ones that had all their homework done a week early or, alternatively, were extremely driven in side projects (read: dropping school work to manically hustle on their pocket money).

Whatever floats your boat mate... but I was NOT in that group of people.

My brain has always functioned like a series of strings connecting different sides of reality and thoughts, and sticking to a program is quite counter-intuitive and difficult. My mind wants everything, right now, and then spends an indefinite amount of time trying to connect it all... usually in solitary confinement, as if it wanted to reinterpret reality.

Sometimes the result is satisfying, and especially when social interaction accelerates the process.

It could also be that I never properly "trained" my mind to stay on track, or that I lacked the sense of urgency or importance behind a task at hand.

But the more stressed out I got, the less efficiently my brain performed. So school was a hit and miss, until I figured some things out.

It took me a few years to realize I was forcing my mind to mimic the behavior of industrious students, and spending an immoral amount of energy fighting my own wiring. I thought something was wrong with me (probably true on some level :P), or that I was lazy and had no willpower. It turns out I wasn't pressing the right buttons.

So if you're wired like I am, and you're currently in a horrible battle trying to slay the dragon of distractions, because you have an urgent project at hand, here's what worked for me (and in a bullet point format, for all of your OCDs out there ;)

1- Stop working under pressure with zero preparation. Unless your brain looooves to be jolted with anxiety, you're only scaring the little fellow further back in his cave. Domesticate with treats, not sticks. Start earlier but slower. Bark at people that demand a PHD presentation for yesterday... that's not cool, whatever their rationale is.

2- Don't try to sit down and force out a plan yet, with no previous thoughts given to the task. It's the equivalent of trying to switch traffic lights from red to green using telekinesis... if it's not ready to happen, torturing your mind won't help.

3- Instead, start with some relaxed time to just loosely think about your project / task / dissertation, and note things down as they emerge. A relaxed brain has better plasticity.

4- And talk to people. Interactions are amazing resources to enrich perspectives and understand things under different angles. We're a gregarious species... use it to your advantage.

5- Learn the immense power of your ideal work schedule. You swim in brain fog in early mornings? Just focus on your coffee and your repetitive tasks.

At 16, I discovered to my absolute surprise my brain was both a locomotive at 6am, and useless at 9pm. So I just went to sleep early, woke up at 5am, went for a run and was a machine until school started. I have never been as efficient in my life.

Oh, and to make matters interesting... your efficient window changes in time. So don't marry a schedule for life. If your old routine is making you drag your sorry self on the floor, change it. Life changes, adapt. But keep some elements of repetition to tether the work ritual.

6- Figure out what your ideal work setting is. Time and space people, that's where it's at *. Can't work properly unless there's a cat nearby and 70's plastic furniture? Why not!

My brother (same brain as mine) needs a hyper-solemn library to work his best, whilst I've slept my best naps there. I personally did most of my studying pacing back and forth near a park bench. And my best friend at school was basically Aquaman and perpetually studied inside a bathtub (you know who you are ;)

I know I need calm, lots of light, 2 screens, and background music... and ideally no-one around (otherwise I will struggle not to talk to them).

7- Find your best work tools and have a simple system. Test things out to see what works best for you, and investigate on tips and tricks to better use the tools you already have at your disposal.

Beware of excess tools that actually end up cluttering you with mini interconnected tasks you will never end up doing consistently. Keep it simple and adaptable, and educate your coworkers (if possible) in agreeing on a shared system where needed.

For example, I prefer slack / teams to communicate, sharepoint / drive to work in collab, and I love a good planner or trello if used cleverly.

It also took me several years to realize having many subfolders on my email inbox was generating more work and confusion. I just keep 3 folders: Accounts passwords / Action needed / Filed.

8- Do what you love doing, at least in little chunks during the day. Otherwise your mind will end up associating work time with punishment and scarcity.

I hate answering emails, so I'll do a few and intercalate some tasks in the middle that I will enjoy (such as doing a pretty spreadsheet, re-imagining a process, or having an unusually profound conversation about human nature with someone at work).

I could tackle things in a more organized manner, but if I choke my brain with tasks it hates, it will only be efficient for a short time. So I feed the machine some comfy times before I rev it up. Push the speed and break pedal to keep it alert.

So you see, I did end up circling around the distraction and using it as fuel ;)

Why not trust your mind when it wants to show you a potential path? In the end, it knows you better than all these outside models...

* 10 points if you spotted the recursion