Fokus in Zeiten technischer Überforderung

Sometimes I’m like the dog in the movie Up. In the animation the dog is focused, obedient and loyal. Until *^%$Squirrel!

I turned off all notifications just to get away from the noise on social media. I know, if you are marketing your book this is not an option.

But before you market your book you write it. To do that you want to clear away as many diversions as you become aware of.

Recently, I came across an involuntary digression and immediately planned for a way to keep me from wandering.

Imagine you turn to your phone to retrieve some information, like a note for your book. You had set up do not disturb and so not a peep comes from your handheld.

But the moment you unlock your phone you’ve opened a pandora’s box. The world is rushing in and you are flooded with information you didn’t ask for. Worse, you answer questions and take actions that can’t seem to wait any longer. 

What’s that number that called you? Your dentist or a marketing call center? Spam or Spa appointment? You’re blocking and deleting the spam, confirm the appointment and call your dentist. By the time you put your phone away you’ve spent half an hour not writing. Going back to writing you realize you still haven’t retrieved the note for your book. 

You took care that no counter tells you about the messages you’ve missed or emails you have yet to open. Good. But then you have to find your note and open the app you’ve used to write it down. And this is where it happens.

The app opens to the last file you’ve worked on. Seeing the screen you remember the task. You remember that you still haven’t finish that research. Didn’t do the follow up, haven’t figured out the last bit of information that needs to be in place before you can move on.

It’s as if you opened an endless to-do-list. Lists with things that make you feel guilty, unaccomplished and failing. Before you know it you are working on a task that you had pushed aside because it wasn’t your priority. Guilty for lack of follow through you feel obliged to check off that box. 

So, here’s what I decided to do from now on. 

Whenever I work in an app on my handheld, or a text file on my desktop that’s not part of my book, I close the file before I shut down the app. Next time I pick up the phone and open that app, I get a fresh start, a clean page on which to write down my idea.

Or, searching for that note, I now have a listing I can scroll down until I find what I was looking for.

I heard of some who end their work midsentence. So when they come back to their writing they’ll have an easy start. They know how to finish what they begun and hit the ground running. I have the screen with my writing open on top of everything. That’s the first thing I see next time I wake my computer from sleep. 

Of course, it doesn’t prevent me from opening the calendar to see my appointment with my editor. Or the email I hope to receive from my agent. Or search for anything else but the next word of my novel. But it’s a little trick that might get me where I want to be right away. And if I grab the opportunity, I am off to a good start of the day.