You Can't Solve Focus

A few years ago, when I had my kid, I realized via brute force how important it is how we spend our time (since I had so little available). I was so tired at times that I would catch myself scrolling through some random feed until, an hour later, I'd realize that experience didn't add anything to my life. It was a careless browsing that made me feel even more numb after I was "done". Since I felt like I was wasting away so much of my time I had to check. I had to check exactly how many hours a week I spent on those feeds. That was a great reality check.

I immediately dove into reading and make it as easy as possible to do that instead of mindless scrolling. Little by little I was inspired to clean up my digital life and have been happier ever since. From a minimalistic home page, to few to none notifications enabled. It just felt so backwards that apps had control over my focus when it should be the other way around. I don't need to pick up my hone because of a random LinkedIn notification, and I definitely don't need to do that for an X notification. As notifications would pop up, I would long-press on it, and disable it. So refreshing.

At the time I thought I was done. I would check my phone because of a notification knowing that my filters were perfectly set up to only steal my focus when I deemed it necessary. I used browser extensions to make YouTube bearable and that felt like another cleanse. What I didn't realize at the time was that I didn't have the perfect formula. Things change, new platforms, new apps, new distractions. I slowly discovered how holding control over your Focus is not a one-time deal. You need to continuously stay on top of it or it becomes too easy to fall into old patterns.

Thought

You can't solve Focus unless you're willing to do a regular gut check. Everything is designed to keep you distracted, as soon as you realize you lost control, please do some digital spring cleaning!

I was so happy when I thought I had "solved" owning my focus. Then I found myself been pulled from something else, than something other than that, and so on. Be very mindful of apps you add to your phone, set up notifications from the start, and don't hesitate to mute anything that feels like noise. Even after I joined Substack, I almost immediately disabled all notifications. I instead dedicate some time every other day to browse it, that way I decide when it's worth for my focus to be on that rather than something else. Been able to decide where your focus should be is a never-ending effort but I encourage anyone to find ways to make it as simple as possible to remove distractions.