Focus: Prisms and Productivity

I’ve often wondered if focus is like “moxie” (courage, determination): you either have it or you don’t.  How critical would life be without a sense of focus? One may argue that the loss of focus is already upon us in this age of trying to work ourselves to death.  As described in my previous post, the term “focus” is defined as a point of concentration.  Truly, how many of us can say that we have the ability to instantly focus to a single point of concentration at any given moment?  I’d argue that our concentration is already so fractured  into many different angles or facets, our focus is more like a prism which takes a single stream (thought) and filters through the various areas that vie for our attention creating a cacophony of light and angles.  To me, this filtration has dreamlike aesthetics and for an artist or creator, this vision and the splicing of one’s thinking would be a boon for creation.  The freeform thinking promotes creation.  However, in the world of productivity which keys off of routines, actions and reactions, this free-form anaology is counter to being productive.  A good example are those routines we just do without an inherent thought. Let’s examine one who is trying to quit smoking.  They feel the loss keenly at different times of the day where they used to enjoy smoking like during relaxation periods or in social situations.  After a good dinner or relaxing with friends, the desire to smoke could be triggered by the activity because it became part of the smoker’s routine.  One of the keys to quitting smoking is identifying the routine and creating change which is similar to trying to be productive.  In essence, identifying the triggering activity and determining if the desired behavior is still desirable.  The more mindless the action, the more concentration remains to allow us to shift focus where it has the most benefit. By multi-tasking, we have become our own prisms.

As a society, we became more technologically minded with the mantra of creating opportunities to work smarter and not harder – or not as hard as before some point in time.  However, many of these areas still require concentration so the misnomer of technology replacing humans can’t truly happen. In an article for the Fall 2010 issue of the Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association, psychotherapist and educator Irene Rosenberg Javors writes that “…Electronic multitasking is compromising our ability to focus. Every time an e-mail, a tweet, or a text arrives and we give them priority, we are taking our focus off whatever we are doing and losing the thread of our thoughts, not to mention conversations. We live in a culture that overvalues getting a lot of things done at once. Add to this all our electronic communication devices, and you have the potential for an electronic multitasking meltdown wherein nothing gets done and there is no focus….We need to understand how we are using our electronic devices: are we using them to avoid people, responsibilities, personal issues, loneliness, work, or to feel important, or that we have a life?” Javors discusses the steps she has taken to achieve greater focus which include turning off electronic devices during periods of concentration.

Now, to my promised ironic Christmas tale which started this blog series; thanks to the U.S. Postal Service for my inspiration!  I was in a very busy line in a post office location in New York City on the Monday before Christmas—during lunch.  Yes, tempers were short with everyone having limited time and there being only two clerks handling the counters for the over 30 people in line.  One customer came up to the counter in complete disarray with multiple open boxes, envelopes all while on the telephone.  Finally, after 5 minutes of attempting to speak to the customer, the frustrated clerk yelled “Focus, Miss…focus on me, right here!”  This got the attention of the full line who collectively turned as the embarrassed customer turned to observe who might have overheard the admonishment only to find herself centerstage.  Her indignant outburst was stifled as realized that she, indeed, needed to focus and she ended her call and attempted to conduct business at the window. My thinking about the event was can a person “yell” at someone to focus and have the command stick? Can one force someone’s focus? The answer to my question came in a delivery to my home two days later when my package destined to go to my family in another state was returned to me for incorrect postage.  It seems that my focus-minded clerk actually needed to focus himself because he added the incorrect postage amount so that my package would be mailed back to me.  (Thanks, Mr. Focus!) A quick trip to my local post office upstate confirmed that the clerk had mailed my own package to the return address.  Focus? Perhaps one needed a mirror too.

In my next post, we’ll discuss the impact of a lack of focus and how we may improve our natural ability to focus without being “coached” in a post office.  Then again, the creative types will always find inspiration in the postage stamp queue.