"Micro-Focus" vs. "Macro-Focus" & Phone "Pickups"
What I Learned at School this Week
Hey y’all,
As I continue to remove distractions (saying “no” more), I’m focusing on how to optimize my time to get my necessary things done, so I have more time for fun things.
Again, I continue to go back to a recurring theme:
being proactive instead of reactive.
This week, I’m not doing five bullets, and no tech recaps (though I’ll probably have some still going forward). But I do have a couple thoughts floating around that I wanted to scribble down before they floated away forever.
I hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think. And as always, thanks for reading.
Let’s cartwheel on into it. 🤸🏻
Optimizing Focus
Recently, I’ve been closely examining what I focus on, and how I focus (or more often: how I’m not able to focus).
And this week I finally had a breakthrough. It may be obvious to you, but it wasn’t to me. There are two types of focus. And previously, they had been unhelpfully twisted together in my mind. This was confusing my ability to diagnose how to best fix and/or improve areas in my life, as it pertains to focus.
In the most basic sense, here is how I’m looking at the two types of focus now:
short-term (ie: you think about it hourly) = micro-focus and
long-term (ie: annual+ goals) = macro-focus.
I’ll elaborate further.
Micro-focus
This is that feeling you get throughout the day when you can’t focus.
You just keep distracting yourself. There are obviously negative distractions (social media, TV, etc.). But the sneaky ones are the “positive” distractions.
You say to yourself: “I need coffee. I’ll be more productive after that.” Or: “I’m going to go for a walk to freshen my mind.” Other common culprits: doing laundry, dishes or even eating a meal. Do you really need lunch at 11am? Or does your stomach tingle jussst a little bit, and it’s the perfect excuse to stop working on that task that you know should really get done today.
Macro-focus
These are your goals. Your long-term commitments that you’ve made to yourself. The things you want to accomplish over years.
This is your North Star(s).
What do you want to accomplish in your career in the next five years? What do you want a relationship to look like in one year? What is your physical goal you want to accomplish in the next six months months?
You may revisit these on a monthly or weekly basis. But you’re probably not thinking about them hourly. You shouldn’t be.
…
And staying macro-focused is different than staying focused on the micro level.
It requires a different toolkit than staying focused on the micro-level. I’m still learning what is required in my toolkit for each, for success. But breaking out these two “types” of focus was super helpful for me to start diagnosing, and then solving, root causes with solutions.
Digital Diet - Update #3
What isn’t measured, can’t be improved
This pithy line has become a go-to mantra of mine at work over the last couple years.
It pairs nicely with the cliche: “make data-driven decisions.” But these are cliche for a reason. So this week I decided to take a few minutes thinking about what metric(s) I wanted to track to accomplish my goal* in the digital diet.
*Goal: use and think about my phone less. Why? In its simplest form: because I want to control my thoughts, not have others/algorithms control my thoughts. Remember: being reactive vs. proactive! :)
There are two metrics I’ve tracked. The first of which: “Screen Time".”
Screen Time
You know that nagging notification that you get every Sunday that you hope no one else ever sees?
Screen Time is a great metric to track. My issue with this is sometimes I’m reading an article on my phone that takes 45 minutes to read, and I’m okay with this type of screen time.
So I am actually focusing more on the second metric.
Pickups
Now, back to our “without a goal, you can’t score” situation.
If someone asked me how many times I pick up my phone each day, I would say, maybe 50? Maybe 500? I really don’t know. Luckily iPhone tracks that for you. Settings > Screen Time > See All Activity > scroll down… moment of truth.
Let’s air out some laundry… I’ll go first.
Trending nicely so far…
But hit a wall this week.
My goal is to get my pickups under 50/day (weekly average). I will report back in a couple weeks with my update. /giphy nervous sweating. Send me your goal(s) and I’ll hold you to it. Or put it in the comments below for ultimate accountability.
A final thought that I’ve been pondering this week
Doing hard things and choosing the path of most resistance is what builds authentic confidence. Many of us, David Goggins says, want the results without the process. We often forget that pain is necessary to make progress.
You’ve got to start diving into those things that you are afraid of.
You don’t gain confidence by going to the spot that makes you feel good.
- Goggins
Thanks for hanging out with me another week. I hope it was alright for me to take a different approach this week, in this little corner of our internet.
I appreciate you.
How did you feel about this week’s post?
(All feedback is 100% anonymous)
Until next week, my friends. ✌🏼
Nothing but love,
Brendan J Short
[Written listening to: “Magic State,” a playlist for focus — by the folks who make Magic Mind]