I admit I’m struggling with my focus this week. The amount of time reading the news, glued to the train wreck in motion, is not healthy. There’s a balance between informed and saturated and I’m wading in the latter. Amped up by own fears of having COVID, but not being able to get tested and results until next week. So yeah . . . my focus is bouncing off the walls. Picking up my phone. Switching between internet tabs. Feeling tired in a way I can separate from my paranoia as not normal for me but than worrying it’s just being run down and then worrying it’s something else and there’s nothing I can do to control it either way . . .
Uffda. What a fun way to start a Saturday. But in all seriousness, I recognize the need to reset some control before I wade deeper here. I might not be able to do anything if my body is telling me it needs more rest that usual (as much as I’m anxious about screwing up my running plan), but I know I can exercise some more self-discipline in my time and what I’m consuming.
I read Deep Work and Digital Minimalism both by Cal Newport last year — there’s good lessons to draw from that I need to remember. Here’s a smattering of wisdom from the two books that I’m recording for myself here:
- What we choose to focus on and what we choose to ignore—plays in defining the quality of our life.
- Digital Minimalism: A philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.
- Efforts to deepen your focus will struggle if you don’t simultaneously wean your mind from a dependence on distraction.
- If you service low-impact activities, therefore, you’re taking away time you could be spending on higher-impact activities. It’s a zero-sum game.
- Simply put, humans are not wired to be constantly wired.
- Less mental clutter means more mental resources available for deep thinking.
I at least know this by now: that life is a game of constantly resetting, reminding, reinforcing. Of stepping back and then relentlessly stepping forward as far as you can. So I know the step back in my habits and personal productivity this week isn’t the end of my world. And I also know I need to change something if I want to take that step forward. Here’s to a weekend reset.
With Love,
Natalie