2026-08-26
Focus is hard. I've been a computer person for as long as I can remember. The attention economy is real and fighting for my attention back for long-form focus is hard when I can see something new and shiny every 5 seconds.
Sometimes when I'm really struggling to focus, I'll set a timer that beeps every 5 minutes. For 5 minutes, I'll focus on completing as much of my focus-needing task as possible. For the next 5 minutes, I'll get up and do something physical like a chore, getting some fresh air on the balcony, or a quick exercize. Rinse, repeat. It uses the fast-paced pathways that the internet has built into my brain, but allows me to actually get stuff done. (And yes, this means a full 50% of my time is spent not focusing on the task, and yes, 50% is a better success rate than not being able to focus at all.)
When focus is hard, my evening learning and blogging habit become hard to start. Today I had to tell myself that this is a day when discipline needs to kick in, so that I don't skip the day entirely. It worked! Every time it works, it should get easier.