Being able to aim your mind is an important tool for a writer. Keeping your focus on the manuscript in front of you can make the difference in hitting daily writing goals, coming up with ideas, and even finishing projects. If you can’t bring your mind to a concentrated space, then your progress may be slow and beleaguered, but if you train yourself to have a sharp focus, the words will flow.

Maybe.

There is no single key to productivity, but if I had to name one, it would be focus. Without it, your work and writing can wander and lack direction. That’s why it is imperative to develop the skill of being able to aim your mind.

There is also something to be said about the ability to unfocus. Sometimes intense focus can be the enemy of creativity- keeping the blinders up and forcing out any new spontaneous ideas. Unfocusing can keep you open to those “Ah ha!” moments when the right idea strikes.

The ability to unfocus allows you to be an open vessel for ideas, and focusing allows you to take those ideas and channel them into something creative.

Focusing

If you are having trouble focusing, you aren’t alone. You’re actually the opposite of alone. Most people struggle to focus in our modern age. Dandapani, a Hindu priest, says, “Most people can’t concentrate today for two reasons. One is, we are never taught how to concentrate, and second is, we don’t practice concentration.”

There’s the big issue. We are never taught how to focus. We come into the world, and we take the ability for granted, which is a big mistake. Focus is a learned skill that takes practice. The untrained mind can easily be distracted because it wants to be. Brains crave stimulation- that’s just biology. Our brains want dopamine hits from the various distractions that fill our lives.

So how do we learn to focus?

The easiest answer and one you will often see is “Remove Distractions,” but is that enough? I don’t think so. That is a piece of the puzzle, but it’s not enough.

Putting your phone in the other room or finding a quiet space will help, but it’s not the full solution. When I have tried these things in the past, I still feel restless as I try to work- craving distraction from writing, studying, homework, etc. Re-training that impulse is the real key to overcoming distractions.

The most popular exercise to help train focus is -bear with me, I know this is going to sound silly to some- meditation. Many of us may think that meditation is something that only monks or social media influencers do, but it is an incredible tool for honing your focus.

Meditation is the practice of concentrating on a single thing and catching yourself when you get distracted. It’s like lifting weights but for aiming your brain. As you do it more, you will be able to focus on a single thing for longer amounts of time.

Here’s a simple guide to meditation:

Find a quiet space and remove any distractions. Find a comfortable way to sit- it doesn’t have to be the ol’ criss-cross applesauce like on TV. Sit however you please. Your eyes can be opened or closed, whatever works best for you.

Then just breathe, and as you breathe, focus on your breath. Use that voice in your brain to say “in” as you inhale and “out” as you exhale. Simple as that.

With some practice, you will find yourself not thinking “in out in out.” Rather, you’ll be thinking about some upcoming bill, a story idea, or of the words of some pop song that you can’t quite remember. As soon as you realize that you aren’t focusing on your breath, just come back to it.

In, out, in, out, in, out, I came in like a… What was it? Hmmm, wait whoops, in, out, in, out, in, out.

Here is a crucial meditation commandment: Thou shalt not get upset when you get distracted.

I have friends who have told me that they stopped meditating because they keep getting distracted- that’s total nonsense. That would be like trying to run an entire marathon without any training and being disappointed when you drop out after five miles. You are going to get distracted, and that’s fine. You will likely spend the majority of your time distracted, but remember that’s the game. Just come back and keep going.

Over time, this practice will help your mind focus. It will grow your brain’s ability to aim at one thing.

Start small if you like- 5 or 10 minutes a day, but I find that 15 minutes is a good number. After 10 minutes, I really start to get in the zone, and that is when you know you’re making progress.

I have another practice for you that will seem like it runs contrary to all the work we put into meditating, but in reality, they go hand in hand.

Un-focusing

Yeah, I said it. Un-focusing. While meditation trains you to focus, this is a useful tool for training your brain to not crave distraction.

This concept is specifically related to the modern age because we are inundated with distractions and stimuli. Push notifications and televisions in restaurants constantly pull in our attention. So much, that our brains always feel the need to focus on something, and giving into these things only feeds the lust for stimulus.

If you look at every push notification your phone sends, you are training your brain to like that distraction. Your brain wants to look at something every 15 seconds and be stimulated. The art of un-focusing hopes to undo that training.

Un-focusing works very similar to mediation in a physical sense, but the idea is to not concentrate on things. Physically someone could look like they are doing the same thing, but mentally they are different and work to train your brain in different ways.

Here is a quick guide to unfocusing:

First, remove distractions (you see how I said this was a piece but not the key?). You don’t want anything that will grab your attention. No screens, no books, no solitaire, no nothin’.

Second, be bored. End of list.

That may seem way too easy, but that’s it. The key is to let yourself be bored. Let your thoughts wander around. An idea may pop up about one thing, and you should follow that white rabbit. Let your brain do its thing in its natural state.

You may be asking yourself: “What does this even accomplish other than boring me to death?

You may not realize it, but detaching from distraction and letting your brain wander will train your brain to crave stimuli less. Right now, distraction is all that your brain knows, but deprive it of that drug, and it will detox.

According to productivity guru Chris Bailey, it takes about 8 days for your brain to adapt to changes like this, but after that, you may feel your brain start to wander more and crave distraction less. That will be a trend the more and more that you practice un-focusing.

There are lots of ways to help your brain become less stimulated that don’t require this kind of dedicated practice. Sitting and being bored for an extended amount of time might be too much for you at the start. Here are some other ways to avoid stimuli in your everyday life.

Find time to zone out. Find something mindless you can do that lets your mind wander. Stephen King takes daily walks. Chris Bailey knits. I like to go hiking. Just find something that doesn’t take your full attention and doesn’t include a screen.

Use an app blocker. These are great. I hate when I read someone talking about this issue and they tell you to get off social media completely. If we are being honest, in our current culture getting off social media would be like becoming a hermit. It is a primary mode of communication, but you don’t need it all the time.

Use these blocking apps to help remove these distractions when they are unnecessary. I am sure you are all too familiar with the feeling of picking up your phone to google something and then five minutes later, you’re 100 tweets deep. That is a waste of your focus. Block apps like Reddit, Twitter, and Instagram. Only unblock and check them once a day. Be deliberate in how you consume your content. Don’t let it consume you.

Stop multitasking. I love half-watching Hulu and scrolling through Reddit. It’s the best, but it is also terrible training for your brain. This is a classic example of letting your brain be overstimulated as it rapidly flips its attention between screens, switching as soon as it gets a little bored.

Do one thing at a time. Watch TV or browse Reddit. Not both. If you are going to spend time with a screen, pick one and stick to it.

Avoid screens at night. Having dedicated a dedicated “No Screen” or “No Internet” time at the end of the day will give you a perfect time to un-focus. It will also help your sleep since screens before bed can disrupt your REM cycle and make for poor sleep. Getting rest is also important for focus!

There are a myriad of ways you can do this. Find whatever works for you. Here’s how I do it: My phone is set to turn on Do Not Disturb mode from 8 PM to 8 AM. I have phone calls whitelisted in case of an emergency, but nothing else comes through. During that time, I don’t watch videos or flip through social media. This time is reserved for reading, playing guitar, or social time and has become my favorite part of the day.

Turn off push notifications. You don’t need notifications about Domino’s latest deals or about who liked your photo on Instagram. Useless notifications will increase your chance of getting sucked down the smartphone distraction blackhole. My phone is set to only send me push notifications if someone sends me a direct message. The other stuff can wait until I check the app. Remember: Be deliberate in how you consume your content. Don’t let it consume you.

Master of the Two Worlds

This is a lot of homework, I know. Please do not make the mistake of diving in and doing all this at once. As I have talked about in my post “Start Writing Strategically”, take reasonable steps. If you decide to quit social media cold turkey, you will likely fail. Start small and slowly transition. As you train your brain to crave less distraction and focus more, it will become easier. Just make sure to at least take the first steps to make a change (and turn off notifications from CNN for goodness sake).

These two practices together will make your brain a focus juggernaut. Meditation will help teach you to focus more intently, and un-focusing will train your brain to crave distraction less.

Take these tools with you into your writing and magic just might happen.

Weekly TL;DR: Practicing focus + avoiding needless stimuli + being bored more = productivity.

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