A small but mighty step towards Focus

If you’re anything like me, focus can at times be elusive. Honestly, sometimes it can be difficult making it through a single paragraph of reading (hopefully not this one!). During these nutty times which find us working from home, working hybrid, working from…Belize, and oh yeah, even at times in an actual office, sustained focus can be difficult.

It’s certainly been challenging for me and I suppose it always has been. I think back to weekday evenings in college, knowing myself well enough to realize if I didn’t haul myself down to the library, i just wouldn’t get my work done…always envious of my brainy dear friend and roommate who could plop himself down at his dorm room desk, plug-in coffee hot-plate nearby, and just study for hours while a din of college madness and temptation swirled around him.

In my present-day set up, just feet (literally) from my kitchen, it’s a big deal if I can put together a couple hours of heads-down work without declaring snack time like a pre-school teacher might. Even the dog is beginning to look at me like, “weren’t you just here?”

In my leadership coaching practice, we view focus as the critical foundation from which my clients can ultimate draw on what gives them the greatest energy and the greatest purpose and ultimately, the highest levels of work and personal fulfillment.

Yeah, that can sound lofty, but I believe we can all get there. A terrific first step can be what’s simply known as centering.

Centering allows people to take a moment or few, focus on the breath and on the present moment to minimize distraction. Think of centering as a quick reset button we can press without deleting contents of the full day, like “clearing the cache” of all the thoughts that have built up but aren’t serving us. It can be a few minutes when you wake up in the morning, or it can be throughout the day, as I tend to do. If it feels too “meditative” to you or you’re convinced that you don’t have the focus or time to make it through 10 minutes at a time, try two. That’s right…just two minutes. In fact, there is no shortage of two-minute guided mediations (seriously, google “two minute meditation”) to try out. We’re all wired so differently, so I won’t recommend one over the other, but me let throw out a few times during the day you might find a good moment for this. All you need is a chair, as it’s really helpful when you can sit straight and feel the grounding of your feet on the earth.

As you sit down at your desk first thing but before you open your first email.
Around 10:30 (take a mini mid-morning break).
Just after lunch and before jumping back in.
Around 3:30 (take a mini mid-afternoon break).
End of day…perhaps after you slam the lap-top shut but before you take off (or just go into the next room).
Two minutes that’s it…or 10 minutes total in a work day that has 480 of them. Start by doing it once per day, then maybe a couple times. Over time, you’ll begin to naturally integrate the breath and the present moment into more of your day, more of your thinking and attention and focus will come more easily.

Want something really easy to start with? Here’s one that’s done everywhere…from the office to the classroom to the yoga studio.

After sitting straight with your feet on the floor, close your eyes or lower your gaze. Breath naturally, without force. Then, take a deep breath in and hold it for a second or two. Exhale fully and slowly to the count of 5–4–3–2–1, letting it all out. Hold it for just a beat or so, then inhale to the same slow rhythm, 1–2–3–4–5. Hold for a count, then and release back down, slowly, fully, 5–4–3–2–1. Repeat that sequence five or so times, return to a normal breath (don’t force it), slowly flit your eyes open, another breath, and off you go. Less than two minutes of centering and a first real step on the journey towards focus and all the truly good and liberating that can come with it.

Writing in The Daily Guardian last year, B.K. Usha, a Rajyoga teacher in India’s Rajasthan state, suggested that, “With dedicated and sustained practice one can acquire the ability to remain calm and focused even when there is commotion all around.”

Give it a shot, and let me know how it works for you.

Wishing you calm and focus amongst the commotion.