How to Focus

Focus is defined as the distinctness or clarity of an image rendered by an optical system.

Focus in work is the knowledge and performance of the task at hand. Focus has two parts: knowledge and performance, clarity and rendering.

Knowledge is the clarity of understanding what task to perform: What is the current goal? and What is the priority?

Performance is the action of carrying out the task. Rendering the image.

Focus is the most important trait to practice and cultivate for success. Without focus, you cannot achieve anything.

Note the use of 'practice and cultivate', those words are used because focus is a skill. Just like any other skill, you need to hone them consistently or else you lose them. So don't think that you're somebody who can't focus, or that you're predisposed bad at it. Focus is a muscle, and you're a skinny bitch.

So all you need is to practice focus every day and you'll develop competence in the skill.

Why is focus so essential?

It is so essential to success because the quality of focus is directly correlated to the quality of your output.

Focus is the clarity of the image you render.

This is the importance. Focus is the coefficient of output.

If you don't have this skill then everything you do will be affected. You won't be able to make much money, cultivate good relationships, get good at any sport or activity.

Getting this right, honing the skill, acquiring the trait: will set you so far apart from the competition. This generation's focus is being nuked by TikTok, porn, and short form content.

We live in a generation with a pervading lack of focus. The mainstream apps destroy attention span and thus focus. Without focus you are just a primate who follows impulses. If you cannot dedicate yourself to one task for an extended period of time then you won’t be able to create or do anything significant.

Now that we understand what focus is and why it's important let's go over some actionable advice.

The way you should practice the skill of focus is Deep Work. You do this by working in 60-90 minute blocks of completely focused work. Commit yourself to 1h of 100% focus on a singular task, put your phone in the other room, have water beside you, set a timer and perform the task with 100% of your brain.

The habit of doing 4 or more blocks of these time blocks is a commonality I've noticed in many successful people online. Namely: Alex Hormozi, Andrew Huberman, Hamza, Jodie Cook, and Dan Koe.

During a work session listening to binaural beats (40 Hz), white noise, pink noise, or brown noise can aid focus and help to get focused faster.

Both fasted and fed states help focus in different ways, but many (including me) find intermittent fasting a very beneficial practice. I find that when I fast in the morning my mind is very clear and better at working.

Meditation will immensely help focus because it trains the ability to bring your attention back after it drifts. A simple and science-based practice you can do for 5 minutes every morning is as follows: Sit and focus on your breath, repeat inhale + exhale in your head as you do it and feel the bodily sensations of doing this. Once your attention drifts (inevitably) and you catch yourself thinking something else accept it and then return to the breath. Every attention drift then return is 1 rep to strengthen this muscle.

A cold shower in the morning will spike adrenaline and give a long-lasting dopamine baseline increase. These neurochemicals are necessary for focus, so this practice can help you start work and be more effective during that session.

Huberman notes that focusing on one object prior to a work bout can help you initiate the session (often the hardest part). By narrowing our cone of vision and concentrating on one spot for 30s or more (literally just staring at it) it will stimulate the brain in a way which shows that currently or will need to focus.

Micro vs. Macro focus

Up to this point we've covered what micro focus is, why it's important, and actionable advice of how to improve it. It's intuitive to understand what micro focus is: the act of concentration on a singular action.

Macro focus is less intuitive, and frequently the reason people aren't successful. A useful analogy is to compare these concepts to a boat: micro focus is setting the sails, looking after the ship, cleaning, etc.. and macro focus is the direction that the ship sails.

The act of macro focus is saying 'no'. Macro focus is saying no to seemingly good opportunities to put your attention into the one activity you've decided matters most.

It is the skill of saying 'no', and it's hard. It's difficult to practice because you will have to deny opportunities that keep looking better and better as you get more success.

Macro focus is judging what task you're going to work at using your finite and most precious resource: time.

There is nuance to macro focus which micro doesn't have: macro is judgment based and is subject to some common pitfalls.

Macro wise you want to avoid Shiny Object Syndrome, meaning you don't want to keep switching which port you're sailing to after you learn the cons of the current one and pros of another. Never choose a port solely because it's novel and trendy.

On the other hand, you need the ability to pivot and change which port you're sailing to when presented with new information.

The extinguish curve for what port you decide on should be as long as possible.

Successful people have a long extinguish curve. Meaning that as the rookie Door 2 Door salesman when they knock on the door and told no, they go and knock on 30 more doors. The rookie salesman with a short extinguish curve knocks on one has a bad experience and quits.

Attention span

Almost everybody growing up in today's age has a short attention span which is only getting worse.

Attention span is a measure of one's ability to focus.

Short form content and instant gratification, such as TikTok, YT shorts, Instagram Reels, Porn, etc.. ruins your attention span.

You already know this, so let's cover what to do about it (apart from the obvious to not consuming it)

Consume long-form content, you do not gain any value from short form content (sure there are some rare occurrences, but it's uncommon)

The long-form content should be about all the subjects you're interested in currently, and watch in short form. Read books, listen to podcasts and audiobooks, read newsletters and blog posts, watch long YouTube videos, and take courses on subjects which you enjoy and want to learn more about.

Meditate. Meditation is a direct counteraction of what modern apps do to your brain. If you commit to this practice you will be able to control your attention much more consciously instead of being a hedonistic monkey controlled by corporations and scientists trying to steal your attention and time.

In the competition against the generation without focus, if you possess this trait you’ll get set apart from the majority and improve in any metric or discipline significantly faster.