Why we can’t focus?
Nowadays it’s really difficult to concentrate on something for a considerable amount of time. We are experiencing the era of social media, fancy gadgets and various excitements around us. Please don’t get me wrong as I am not judging the use of social media negatively. Rather using the social media moderately helps us connect with great people and sharing our thoughts and experiences.
It is becoming more challenging day by day to focus on a single thing at a time to complete this before starting another task. For last few weeks, I have started searching what is way to being to improve focus on the goals we want to achieve. I found there the book Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. This book has introduced me with a very new concept which he called Flow.
What is Flow?
The Simple definition of Flow is – the State in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter. Few Synonyms of Flow are: Connected to, Immersion, In Zone and Hyper Focus & Feeling enjoyment in the process.
Why we can’t focus?
Distraction is the opposite of focus. Let’s break down the reason why we can’t focus/why we get distracted. There are mainly 3 things:
- If it’s too easy: Sometimes we perform few task which are not challenging at all. We used to do the easy task over and over. Our brain started feeling monotonous and get distracted. Author of Flow told that if we provide an easy task to an expert people he/she will eventually feel bored and easily get distracted. For Example: An Expert cyclist is riding cycle in a straight path will not make him feel any challenge and excitement.
- It it’s too hard: the second reason is that we turn to distractions if the task is too hard to accomplish. The Author of flow said, we feel anxiety when we the difficulty level of task is so high. For Example: An inexpert cyclist is riding cycle in a super jig jag path will feel unsafe and anxious about occurring any accident.
- Infinity Pools are so attractive: we can work and fix the task if it’s too easy or too hard. But what if we keep our smartphones always with knowing that the every single notifications and alluring apps might turn our attention to a long hour distraction. The Authors of Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Everyday Book told that the modern technologies take advantage of the natural wiring of our brains. We evolved to love mysteries and stories because they helped us learn and communicate. We evolved to love gossip and seek social status. You can’t wait for the companies or government regulators to give your focus back. If you want control, you have to redesign your own relationship with technology.
Focus is like compound interest. The longer we remain focused on our goal, the more engaging we shall find us and better work experience.