E
eno
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How do you increase/keep your focus/concentration on a specific subject/matter (tips, tricks, techniques,...)?
I'm not so much wondering about distractions by untracked things but rather about distractions by other people/events surrounding you when you have to focus, distractions by yourself thinking about things that are already collected, processed and waiting for e.g. change of context (while the task at hand needs to be done now) etc.Brent said:Increased concentration is a primary goal of the GTD system. By getting all your mental distractions out on paper in a system that you know you'll refer back to, you won't suffer from those distractions as often.
Thanks, I'll have a look at that!Scott_L_Lewis said:A very good book on this subject is Conzentrate: Get Focused and Pay Attention--When Life Is Filled With Pressures, Distractions, and Multiple Priorities by Sam Horn. It is very readable and contains a lot of techniques to work with.
It is now available in paperback.
eno said:distractions by other people/events surrounding you when you have to focus
eno said:distractions by yourself thinking about things that are already collected, processed and waiting for e.g. change of context (while the task at hand needs to be done now)
Of course.Brent said:Close the door. Don't answer the phone. If somebody physically interrupts you, the first words out of your mouth can be, "I'm sorry, I'm busy and can't talk right now. You'll have to come back at (time)."
Or is that not working for you?
Yeah, that way I could keep adding to lists ad infinitum (not necessarily next actions but rather ideas in general, details etc.).If you have everything -- and I mean everything -- out on paper, your mind won't do much of that. Honest. And when it does distract you, you can get that distraction off your mind almost immediately by putting it on the appropriate Someday/Maybe or Project list.
I think if you capture things with GTD you aren't necessarily ignoring things. Also, I think struggling to focus doesn't provide nearly as much results as being relaxed and in focus.Brent said:I think both approaches are theoretically the same, but that the mind doesn't work that way. I think suppressing/ignoring things is unhealthy for the mind.