Tools for better focus - Worry List and Habit Tracker

Recently, an artist I follow recommended "Hyperfocus: how to be more productive in a world of distractions" by Chris Bailey, so I jumped right in.

I'd say that the vast majority of the book talked about things I already know and could be (very roughly) summarised by:

• notifications bad,
• phone visible while doing things or talking with someone bad,
• using the phone first thing in the morning bad,
• using the phone last thing before going to sleep bad,
• meditation good, really good,
• frequent breaks good,
• it's waaay easier remove distractions beforehand than fight distractions when they occur (that is - turning off notifications before focus session, cleaning that desk before the work, eating something before reading).

For me, even if I'm not taking into account my previous knowledge about the topic, this book could be easily 20% shorter if it wouldn't repeat the same things over and over again, but this is my common complaint when it comes to similar titles. Authors sometimes want to get some of the points across by highlighting them multiple times until they stick - for me, it's usually too much.

However, I'm grateful for the book because of 2 more tools that I started using after the read.

Worry Lists

So far, my biggest threats to focus were urgent thoughts. Let's say, I start writing, and then suddenly think "Damn, I need to go grocery shopping today."

Normally, a thought like that would be too irritating to ignore. Of course, I could easily go shopping after my task is complete, but the nagging in my head wouldn't shut up and I'd be too afraid to forget about this new task. Food is really high on my priorities list, higher than anything else (maybe besides sleep, haha). I'd choose to go to the shop and return to writing afterward.

This pause, however, made it harder to return to my original task.

The author of a book introduces "worry lists", which I prefer to call "interruption list". The point is to, whenever a distracting though occur, to write it down. Yes, it's that simple. And it works wonders!

Writing it down removes the thought from my head and at the same time assures me I won't forget about it. I'm free to continue my task without worrying I'll skip something important because of my focus session.

There is also something about writing things down physically, that makes it easier to get out of the system.

Tracking habits

The book introduced the idea of tracking habits, which is nothing new in itself. I only tried mood tracker before (without great success, as something as fluid as mood cannot be easily ranked in my opinion), but with habits... I consider myself pretty self-motivated, so I didn't know how could I profit from that.

But "Hyperfocus" explained to me how I can gain from using a tracker, and this made me actually try it myself. As I started viewing focus not only as a momentary state of concentration, but in a long-term way as well (as in "focusing on what's important in life"), it all clicked.

I've been using a habit tracker (HabitHub is my choice) for a few months now, but as always, it's just a tool. Feel to can try a piece of paper if that works for you.

What habit tracker do is:

• serves as a constant reminder that there are important things in my life I can be doing,
• encourages me to block a certain amount of time to complete a task. Having a very specific time or requirement constraint (for example "read for 30 minutes" or "write 500 words") helps with getting the right mindset for one focus session. Now I'll read until I'm done. Now I'll write until I'm done,
• the existence of an unfinished list pushes me to complete it (it's a phenomenon known as the Zeigarnik Effect and LinkedIn is a perfect example of using it right - by adding the progress bar, the website was able to boost the rate of complete profiles up to 55%!). Not gonna lie, ticking my habits as "done" is satisfying,
• (non-focus related, but helpful nevertheless) assures me that I do more than I think I do. I tend to underestimate my activity, and whenever I think I haven't drawn in a week, it clearly shows me it was just two days,

I set habits for things like health (meds, stretching, workout, meditate for 10 minutes, eat veggies, practice gratitude), learning (complete Japanese lesson, "learn something new today"), relax and creation (draw, write 500 words, read for 30 minutes, game) and even social (do something nice for someone, write to my partents).

"Productivity means accomplishing what we intend to do. If our plan for today is to write three thousand words, rock a presentation with our leadership team, and catch up on our email, and we successfully accomplish all of those, we were perfectly productive. Likewise, if we intend to have a relaxing day and manage to do absolutely nothing, we're again perfectly productive. It doesn't matter how busy we are if that business doesn't lead us to accomplish anything of importance. Productivity is not about cramming more into our days but about doing the right thing in each moment."

-Chris Bailey, from Hyperfocus: how to be more productive in a world of distractions

It's not about getting 100% of everything done every day, because it's impossible (and unhealthy). But a list like that is a delicate nudge to remind me that I have things that are important to me. And every time I want to indulge in something random, a list like that shows me "Hey, you haven't meditated today. Isn't that really good for you? Are you becoming more a person you want to be if you skip it today?".

A habit list is a living thing - I update it according to what I want achieve. I find the "social" ones especially interesting. Thanks to "do something nice for someone" I left waaay more encouraging comments under artists' works than I would do normally, and started complimenting people even though I normally really struggle with interactions like that.

In a long run, a simple tasks like that help me with keeping focus on me being a better person.

If the topic of guarding your attention is fresh to you, or you noticed that you are struggling with focus or get easily distracted, you can find"Hyperfocus: how to be more productive in a world of distractions" by Chris Bailey a good read with both personal anecdotes and interesting research.