Finding Focus: Unraveling the Tabs

So many of us have an extremely high number of tabs open, perhaps even multiple browsers. Multi-tasking is not really a good thing - it’s just switching with an added attention disruption cost. One of the first challenges in focusing for me is the constant switching, if not of tasks, then of thoughts - I’ll think about an upcoming deadline, worry about an email I have not responded to, think about the task at hand BUT I’ll also think about a recall on my car, upcoming doctor’s appointments, which leads me to thinking of the health of my close ones, taking me to the healthcare costs etc. You see where this is going. Before I can start to untangle all of these thoughts to focus on them individually, it is important that I know what are the broad buckets of my zigzagging thinking.

Broadly speaking, for me those buckets include work, health and wellness - my own and those in my life, money, visa and immigration uncertainty, the general state of the world, a mild mid-life crisis which is just more about what has life been like so far and what do I want from the rest of it. Each of these buckets for me is like a nested Russian doll. If you dig a little deeper, there is so much more to it - health is beyond just the actual feeling, am I doing enough for the present and the future? What will retirement (if that ever happens) look like? At work, I think about present and past interactions, about how I am being strategic (or not), if I am pushing myself so I don’t stop learning. For the world around me, am I doing what I can in my local orbit or do I just find it all so overwhelming that I shut down. Each of these are important to me but when they frantically circle my head altogether, it benefits no one. That’s all for this post: knowing the many tabs not just on your laptops, but also in your minds.