On Focus

Have you ever read an entire page of a book, only to get to the end and realize that you have no idea what you just read?  You know you read it, but yet you haven't the slightest clue what it was about.  This has been an issue for me ever since I started reading books that didn't have pictures in them.

According to certain tests I've taken, I have ADHD.  I don't buy it.  Although maybe some of that Adderall stuff would have helped me out in law school.  I suffer from a far more common affliction that my mother diagnosed when I was just a kid.  She called it "being a space cadet."

While I have become far less absent-minded over time, I still have issues with maintaining focus.  I often find myself thinking about things that have nothing to do with the present moment.  My mind is elsewhere.  Short of taking prescription medications, there are certain things that I've tried to focus more, and they work to varying degrees.  Meditation, regular exercise, breathing techniques, all really do seem to help.  Unfortunately, there always seems to be periods of time where no matter what I do, focus is hard to come by.

Recently, I've been in just a phase, and it's been an obstacle to my writing.  I will be merrily typing away, producing witty dialogue, eloquent prose, when all of a sudden my mind will wander, and I will be thinking about the book I've been reading, or an idea for a marketing campaign, or running through the presentation I have to give at work, or deciding what to have for dinner.  Some of the thoughts are useful, but the fact remains I'd rather be having them in the appropriate setting, because while I just decided to have seasoned chicken breasts for dinner, I have completely lost the flow of my writing, and regaining that flow is critical.

But aren't creative types supposed to let their minds wander?  Isn't that how they come up with their ideas?  Should I really be trying to curtail this process?  This is where I struggle.  The majority of my best ideas come from idle thoughts.  I've never been very good at sitting down and saying, "Okay, time to brainstorm."  And the process of mind mapping makes no sense to me...  what the hell do all those lines mean?

So - how do you strike a balance between focus and free thinking?  To be honest, I'm not really sure, but here's what I've been trying to do: reserve certain times for letting my mind wander in specific areas.  For example, I've always found that I've had a lot of great ideas in the shower (why so many people seem to have good ideas in the bathroom, I don't know), but lately I've found myself thinking about work in the shower.  This makes sense given that things have been busy lately, and that I usually shower right before leaving for work, but I have 8+ hours per day to think of work, do I really need more?  So, if I'm in the shower, I will consciously guide my thoughts towards something more creative, such as writing.  Another time my mind often wanders is while cooking.  Instead of rehashing the presentation I've given a few hours earlier about product positioning, might as well use the time that I'm in front of the stove to think of the menu for the rest of the week.

The system's not perfect, but short of going into zen-like focus, or returning to my space cadet ways, I have yet to find a better way to balance focus and free-flow creative thinking.

Oh, and I still often have to back track while reading things, but I take that as a good thing now.  It means that whatever I'm reading has got me thinking.