Focus
Even the most successful people sometimes wonder if they could achieve more in the day. If only they could focus better.
Our unconscious mind can hold a seemingly unlimited amount of information. Our conscious minds, however, are limited by the ‘magic number 7’ – once we have around 7 items (plus or minus 2), adding anything else in will tend to make another piece of information drop out of our awareness.
You can test this by trying to recall the following number sequences, using your conscious mind, rather than any memory hooks or techniques you may know. Note your conscious mind’s capacity.
3 8 0 1
8 5 1 4 9
4 6 3 8 1 2
2 9 5 1 7 3 4
6 1 8 2 5 9 0 7
5 8 6 1 9 4 3 7 2
3 0 8 2 5 7 4 9 1 6
What can tend to happen is that, while working on one thing, something else pops into the mind to distract us. We can explain this as the result of being too busy – just too much to think about, or procrastination perhaps. Sometime this happens because we don’t particularly want to do the task, sometimes it may be our mind’s way of livening things up and trying to give us something more interesting to concentrate on.
Some people swear by focusing on the outcome of anything they decide to do and only doing one thing at a time until it’s finished. That’s not realistic in today’s world of instant communications and umpteen ways to be distracted.
An alternative is to have in mind the source rather than the outcome. As with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), often we focus on the outcome – e.g. a company’s KPIs might be its sales, share price, or profit before tax. But focusing on what is at the source of a desired outcome can be more powerful in affecting a desired result. For example, sales can be affected by the number of clients a business has, their average spend each time they buy and the number of times they buy in a year. Getting to the source of what impacts on those factors can be more effective than just looking to increase sales. What affects a client’s decision to return to the company, what affects the price elasticity and how are the ‘touches’ that a company has with its clients managed?
Change your awareness towards the source of whatever outcome it is that you’re interested in and you’ll find yourself focusing on what’s most important. That’ll give you a better return for your time and energy.
One physiological change that can increase the ability to focus is, counter-intuitively, to use your peripheral vision. Visually, instead of focusing in on one thing, let your awareness roll out so that you are aware of everything that is on the periphery of your visual field. Rather like looking at those Magic Eye pictures, where you have to relax in order to look through the design and see the picture within.
You’ll find that as you use your peripheral vision, you’ll relax a little, your breathing will slow and quieten slightly and you’ll be able to think more quickly. This is just your system moving out of sympathetic nervous system arousal (fight or flight mode) into parasympathetic system. In this more relaxed state you’ll be able to see things more clearly, engage your memory to retrieve relevant information and you’ll feel as if you’re focusing better.
So, how to incorporate these ideas into your daily life?
Keep your Action List down to 7 items maximum. You may have tasks scheduled elsewhere, but keep your eye on just the 7 most important ones at a time. Otherwise you’ll find yourself doing the small tasks just to get them ticked off your list. This gives short-term relief only. Better to focus on up to 7 key tasks.
Focus on the source of what will create the outcome that you want, the behaviour and actions that will be most effective in the circumstances. And use peripheral vision to get into the kind of relaxed yet focused state that will enable you to choose those appropriate actions.
Like with the tightrope walker, the kind of focus that achieves results is a relaxed experience. So begin to focus with ease.
Sara Longmuir, Business and Executive Coach, SLongmuir@shirlawscoaching.com 07941 015 866