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Friday Questions about focus

Istiqlál (Independence), 12 Qudrat (Power) 176 B.E. - Friday, November 15, 2019

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PROMPT: November 15th - In your entry today, write about focus. Use the following questions to guide you. At what time of day are you the most focused? When you need to focus on a task, how do you prevent distractions? How do you manipulate your environment to keep yourself focused? How else do you practice focus in your life? Any tools or techniques you can share?

At what time of day are you the most focused? Morning focus is helped by coffee, a breakfast pastry, and breakfast. Morning is the best time to focus, however, I make my doctor and hairdresser appointments of a morning. Sometimes, the appointments interrupt my writing focus. Other times I can focus on writing when I get back home. I've thought about changing the appointments, but that would mean I'd have to interrupt my writing or whatever I'm doing to get ready and go to the appointment. I've rather go to the appointment and come back ready to write or review than interrupt the writing/reviewing process. It's more difficult to refocus after an interruption.

When you need to focus on a task, how do you prevent distractions? Long ago I learned that it is next to impossible to prevent distractions and interruptions. The reason for this is that God, fate, the universe, and everything in the universe has a sense of humor. This means that I will be distracted or interrupted at the most inconvenient time. I've found the best way to deal with these situations is to either take care of the interruption or ignore it.

How do you manipulate your environment to keep yourself focused? I don't. I've attempted to manipulate my environment numerous times over the years. The problem is that nothing works for more than a few hours or a few days. Therefore, I do my best to piece by piece eliminate the piles of distractions around my computer. Right now I'm working on the distractions on the left side of the computer.

How else do you practice focus in your life? Prayer, meditation, making a "To Do List" on the notepad of my smartphone, remembering to check the "To Do List" on my smartphone, getting up from my computer to wash dishes and other necessary things, and getting up to look out the front door to check on whatever is going on outside.

Any tools or techniques you can share? Pausing what I'm doing to read an interesting article online. When worry interrupts me, I pause to say some prayers. I tend to worry about things I don't have any control over or worry because I don't have anything to worry about. In these cases saying a prayer helps me to refocus. I downloaded the Baha'i Prayer app to my smartphone so now all I have to do is open the prayer app.