Focus

Focus shows you that attention is the thing that makes life worth living and helps you develop more of it to become focused in every area of life: work, relationships and your own attitude towards life and the planet.

The first thing you should know about is open awareness. All kinds of attention are valuable – not just the one that’s laser-sharp and focused. When you find your mind wandering a lot, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s wandering in the wrong direction.

Sometimes taking a break is exactly what we need, because it makes our mind wander towards the thing we’ve been dying to figure out. For most of us downtime seems to be a luxury we can’t afford, but in reality, we can’t afford not to relax, because when you keep staring at the screen and can’t seem to make any sense of what’s in front of you, you’ll only get frustrated and perform even worse.

Especially if your work requires intense focus, which is true for engineers, software developers, writers and mathematicians, for example, it’s important to let your mind roam freely and practice “mindlessness” sometimes. For example, when you take a walk outside and leave your work at your desk, your subconscious starts to come up with creative ideas based on you being openly aware of your surroundings.

Studies have found that we can generate up to 40% more original ideas when letting our minds rest.

But sometimes you really do need to work on something for several hours in a focused manner, ideally in the state of flow. What you need to make that happen is willpower. You might know that nutrition, sleep and exercise are important determinants of how much willpower you can muster, but Daniel Goleman discovered one I bet you haven’t heard about: doing work you love. Studies have recently found that the psychological component of willpower is a lot bigger than we thought, meaning most of it actually comes from your mind, not your body. The reason your willpower gets stronger if you do something you love then, is that if your work reflects your goals, it becomes effortless. Late nights, confronting big obstacles and the patience you need until you see it through come a lot easier when you’re 100% convinced that what you’re doing is the exact right thing for you to do. As an example Goleman mentions George Lucas, who, when creating the original Star Wars, went rogue and split from his production company – an incredibly difficult move at the time – because he was afraid his creative vision would be compromised. In the end, because he believed in his idea, he did everything that was necessary to…