Focus

I do my best work when I'm able to focus deeply on something for several hours at a time. This is often referred to as being in a flow state. When I'm able to get into a flow state and stay there for a few hours, good things happen. I fix hard problems. I make progress on building things that matter to me.

Sometimes this happens by necessity. Some critical I.T. outage is happening, I get pulled in to help and by necessity I hyperfocus until the problem is solved. Other times, it seems to happen almost by accident. I'm working on something interesting. I start to lose all track of time. I seem to unconsciously tune out the notifications coming from my phone. I find that after a few hours in a flow state, I feel great.

However, during a normal work day, it unusual for me to make it into a flow state. My normal work day is often broken up by meetings and calls with clients. Time that isn't specifically dedicated to those sorts of meetings is filled with many little interruptions. Sure, most of them are super short...perhaps five to ten seconds each glancing at that incoming email or txt message just to make sure it's not urgent. I expect in an hour if you tracked those interruptions and rounded to the nearest second, they probably don't add up to more than two or three minutes cumulatively. However, each of them is subtly pulling attention away from work that would likely benefit from deeper focus.

My favorite comic that illustrates this well is here.

Is there a better way to work?

If I produce the highest quality work in a flow state and I enjoy it, it seems entirely logical that I should structure my work time so that I get into this state as often as possible, for as long as reasonably possible – right?

Yeah, but...

Sometimes one of those interruptions is actually quite urgent. In my world, it might be a message from a monitoring system that some critical system just went down. It might also be a txt message from a client, who had some time sensitive issue where me responding quickly provides a lot of value. I want to continue to deliver that value to clients, even if it means breaking a flow state. Being able to focus is important. Being able to respond quickly when it actually matters is important too.

So how do I solve for this?

I've been thinking a lot about this. I think the key is to create a way to be reachable quickly when it is actually urgent so that I can turn all the rest of the noise off and focus during the other times.

Simple solution?

You might be thinking... Wait - can't you just put your iPhone on do not disturb (DND), add the important folks to your favorites so when they reach out the notification comes through? Sadly, no. I have multiple clients. Most of them have multiple people who I work with, and they all need to be able to get me quickly in an emergency. The vast majority of the time, when they call, txt or email it's not urgent. However, they do need a way to get to me quickly when it is. So, the seemingly simple iPhone / DND / Favorites solution doesn't really work for me.

I don't think this is a problem everyone has. I also don't think I'm the only one with this problem. I'm part of some slice of people who:

The only way I can think of to solve this, short of hiring a assistant, is to build something.

I've had an idea around this for a long time. It's way past time for me to build it.

If this seems interesting to you, or you are just interested in other stuff I might write in the future, feel free to subscribe.

- David