Focus Archives - Page 2 of 2 - The Art of Improvement

How to Stay Focused When the Internet Wants Your Attention

Have you ever had one of those days where you can’t seem to get anything done? At every turn, there’s another distraction.

For example, say you’re just starting your day, and you hear a text notification. You pick up your phone to check the text, but then notice you have emails, one of which you have been anxiously awaiting. So you start to check your emails, when your alarm goes off reminding you to take your vitamins. So you walk into the kitchen to get your vitamins and notice the laptop laying on the table. This makes you think about the project you were going to work on today, and since you’re getting a late start you decide to send a text to let someone know you’re running late. Then when you look at your phone you notice the first text that came in this morning that you haven’t answered yet.

Do You Struggle With Focus? Practice These 3 Easy Habits

Scroll on Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson’s Instagram and you’ll inevitably find a video of him lifting weights shouting “FOCUS” at someone offscreen. However, it might not be as simple as that for some. If you’re one of those people, fear not. You aren’t alone by any stretch of the imagination.

Obtaining focus can often feel like an uphill battle, especially in the present world. Think about the ding your phone makes when you get a text. it’s designed to acquire your immediate attention; to stop everything you’re doing and focus on this notification. With your focus dragged down to the small screen in your hand, the major social networking apps lick their proverbial lips, relishing the opportunity to consume their product and collect your data.

Mediocre People Focus on the Outcome. Exceptional People Focus On the Process

Slack: The Company That Almost Wasn’t

You may have heard of the workplace communication software, Slack. Many companies use Slack to virtually collaborate and communicate across teams. What most people don’t know is that Slack, despite its success, was never meant to exist.

In fact, the company who developed Slack actually had been hoping to create the next popular video game. But after raising millions of dollars to fund the game’s development, the company ultimately shut down the project because the game failed to attract enough users to be profitable.

The initial goal of the company — to create a successful video game — wasn’t achieved. However, during the process of creating their game, something else happened. The team realized that the chat system they created to accompany the game was worth investing more time in. While failing to build the next Minecraft, they managed to invent the chat system idea for one of the fastest-growing startups in history, and Slack was born.

Why You Can’t Focus – and How To Fix That

Do you struggle to maintain focus on important tasks? Does your mind wander as soon as you sit down to work? Do you turn to your phone, or Youtube (yes, WE SEE YOU), TikTok, or Twitter, to distract yourself from a project for your boss? What about watching too much TV or reading so much you never get your homework done? Does working on something for a whole hour sound like an impossible task? Utterly daunting? Totally unthinkable?

Well, you’re not alone. Focus is a difficult thing to master, and many people struggle with it. Even now as I write this, I find myself momentarily preoccupied with a spot of dirt on my laptop, flipping through the pages of a book nearby that I’ve never read, and crossing off the previous days on my wall calendar.

How to Stop Losing Focus (The Dangers of Social Media)

Do you ever find yourself sitting down to work on a project for your job, study for an important test, or even just get a simple chore done, but find yourself almost immediately scrolling through social media for hours at a time?

While plenty of fun, social media can, unfortunately, keep us from being our most productive selves. Social apps are designed to keep users on them for as long as possible. There’s always a new, funny, or interesting thing to look at. We’re always getting new likes, comments, and notifications demanding our attention. Social media gives us a quick hit of dopamine every time we use it, which is why we keep coming back, and why it’s easy to quit working on a difficult task that may be causing us anxiety, and instead return to social media, which helps us not think about our responsibilities.