Distracted? It's not your fault

If you have trouble finding focus, you’re not alone.

We live in an era of overwhelming choice. We all have infinite information at our fingertips, 24/7. 

Which explains why we go online to book a train ticket, and an hour later we’re listening to a podcast, shopping for shoes, or watching people have their ear wax hoovered out on YouTube. (This is a thing, honestly. But don’t look. It’s weirdly addictive.)

You want to make progress on a creative project, but instead you get tangled up with learning a new bit of software. You update your website or take a course on how to grow your Instagram following (and what about TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest?).

Then there’s that grant to apply for, a competition to enter, new clients to chase.. and of course the scrolling. The endless scrolling.

We start a hundred jobs, yet finish none. It’s exhausting, depressing, demotivating.

It’s about time. But it’s also about bandwidth. 

I'm a coach, working with creative professionals. Many of my clients come to me for help with time management. If they could just cram more into their days, they feel, they might get on top of everything. 

A magical stretch of clear time will open up, with no urgent tasks or niggling to-dos. Then they’ll finally be able to focus on the creative work they want to do.

We do need to manage our time. But we also need to manage our energy and our attention. We only have so much of either before we need to stop and replenish. 

Most of us know this about energy, and most of us are good at noticing tiredness in others. (Even though we’re often tempted to push on through when we’re tired.) Few of us consider our focus, our attention as something that is also limited. 

We beat ourselves up for getting distracted, when what we really need is a break. And to create spaces where we can focus on our most important work, without distraction. 

We all need time and space to focus. 

And we need to create that, rather than trying to get everything else done first, or simply hoping that other distractions and demands will somehow melt away. 

We need to clear space in our busy days, an hour or so where we turn off all the distractions, and tune in to what’s most important to us. This when we do our deep work, the work that really matters. 

After such intense work periods, we also need to build in recovery time before jumping into the next thing on our list. If we fail to do this, we soon fall prey to distraction, procrastination, overwhelm. 

Or we never start the important stuff at all, occupying ourselves instead with unsatisfying trivia and busywork. 

This can be a few stretches, a brisk walk, doing a few chores, a workout: anything that gives our mind a chance to rest and refocus. And if you feel you don’t have time for this, be aware: you probably need it even more urgently. 

Life gets in the way, for all of us

We all have deadlines, packed workdays, times when we’re in flow or working intensely to get a project finished. Then there are social obligations, promo and meetings, the everyday stuff of life like getting dinner on the table, the dog walked, the kids home from school. 

Many of us have work that arrives unpredictably. Indeed, some of us thrive on random adventures and commissions coming in, and the buzz of getting them done on time.

But we can’t do long hours of relentless, focussed work, day after day. It’s not sustainable. In fact, few of us can consistently manage more than four hours of deep, creative work each day. And even in that time, most of us need to take breaks.

Otherwise, the brain fog descends, or we start doing one task and an hour later find ourselves mindlessly scrolling, playing a pointless computer game or just standing with the fridge door open, and no idea how you got there. (Or is that just me?)

The life-changing magic of resting

In his book Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less , Alex Soojung Kim-Pang examines scientific studies but also the routines of writers and thinkers such as Charles Darwin, Carl Jung, Alice Munro and Gabriel García Márquez. 

The most prolific creators seem to favour bursts of concentrated work—usually around 60-90 minutes—followed by rejuvenating activities such as walking, reading, naps and exercise. 

The research he cites backs up this finding. Your focus, your attention is an expendable resource. You only have so much to draw upon before you need to stop and recharge. 

It’s counter-intuitive, but this actually makes you more productive and less prone to distraction than if you try to push on. 

This is even more true now, when we all have devices at our fingertips that are designed for distraction, loaded with apps and games whose business model is sucking up our attention and keeping it for as long as possible. 

Your attention is now a commodity

And some of the finest minds on this planet are working on new ways of capturing it, harvesting it, keeping you scrolling. 

Your lack of focus is not your fault. But you can choose to reclaim it. You need to decide what’s important to you, then make that your priority, your focus. 

The solution is simple, but counter-intuitive: to get more done, focus on doing less.

With creative work, this means paying yourself first, making time for the projects you want or need to do, instead of waiting for time to open up—or for your muse to arrive. 

Leave your phone in another room, switch off all your email and message alerts. This is sacred time for deep work on something that really matters to you.

With the business side of your practice, it means radically narrowing down what you’re trying to do at any one time. 

Quit multi-tasking, plate-spinning, juggling and all the other circus metaphors that too many of us use to describe our frantic lives. Focus calmly instead on just one key task a month—and get it done, no matter what.

How to we do this, exactly? 

I’m going into more detail in my next few posts. But for now, here it is in brief: 

• Pay yourself first. Block out an hour a day to work on a project you care about. If possible, make it a time when you know your energy and focus are high. For me, that’s 8-9am, every day. My writing hour. If you can do more, great. If you already have a full-time job, perhaps it’s just 30 minutes, or couple of hours at the weekend. The important thing is to make it regular, and non-negotiable. You show up, even when you don’t feel like it. I’ll go into more detail on this in next week’s post.
• One focus. At the start of each month, choose just one thing – something you can do, along with everything else already on your plate – and get it done, no matter what. (It’s not too late to do that this month – just choose something small enough to complete in the time that’s left.)
• Daily focus. Choose three key tasks, every day , and commit to doing them no matter what. At least one of these should be a step towards completing your monthly focus task, or to progress something that is important, but not urgent. This way you move out of the habit of fire-fighting, and start making real progress on your own priorities.

Not convinced?

Experiment with finding more focus. Just try taking more breaks, putting far less on your to-do list but actually getting it done. And clear some regular time for deep work, for progressing your own creative projects. 

See what happens. And let me know how you get on!

PS If you broke off to investigate the earwax removal videos I mentioned at the start – you definitely need to work on finding focus. Plus: aren’t they gross yet oddly compelling?

Sheryl Garratt is a writer, and a coach helping creatives of all kinds get the success they want, making work they truly love. Get The Creative Companion , my bi-weekly email packed with articles, links and resources for creative professionals. (Or those who want to be.) It's free!