Three Little Habits to Find Focus
I’ll be the first to admit that I fall victim to the trap of the Internet — a wonderful empowering tool that can fill your day with distractions, a million little “productive” tasks that matter little, constant interruptions from messages and status updates.
Who doesn’t fall victim to this?
We are frittering our lives away.
So how do we beat this? How do we make best use of the awesomeness of the Internet (which has given me the power to do what I love) without succumbing to its powers of distraction? This is a question that obviously occupied the minds of the ancients, from Aristotle to Lao Tzu (who was particularly prone to Lolcats), without any good answer.
I have good news. There is a way. It’s not always easy, but I’ve done it, and if I can do it, anyone can.
It takes three little habits:
1. Set a time limit . Pick something important to do, and set a limited time to do it. That might be one hour, or 20 minutes, or even just 10 if you’re having a hard time getting into it. The time limit helps sharpen your focus. If you have limited time to do something, you’ll be forced to decide what’s important. It also means you’re not doing some unlimited task that could take hours, but a very specific one that will be over in X minutes. Setting a limit is good too for when you decide to process your email — only 20 minutes to get as many emails processed as you can, for example.
2. Close everything . This means everything possible on your computer that isn’t absolutely necessary for the task at hand. If you don’t need the Internet to write something, close it. Close email, all notifications and reminders, all programs not needed for your task. If you need your browser open, close all tabs — bookmark them, or save them to a read-later service like Instapaper. You can always open these sites when you’re done.
3. Pause before switching . So you’ve closed everything else, you’ve set a time limit for your task at hand, and you’re getting started … but then you get the urge to check email or Facebook or Twitter. You want to see what’s happening on Instagram or Pinterest or Youtube. Stop. Make yourself pause for 5-10 seconds. This is the key habit that makes the other two work. Take a deep breath. Think about whether you really want to fritter your life away doing those things all day, every day, or if you want to do something great. Choose great, most of the time.
These are little habits, and you can do them. When your time is up, you can give yourself a few minutes’ break to check your favorite sites, and then close them again. But when you’re trying to focus, practice these habits. They’re a small price to pay for a life not frittered away by distractions.
译文：
三个小习惯找回你的注意力
无关紧要的小“富有成效”的任务充实我们的生活，使我们不断被信息和状态更新给打扰。谁能不受害呢？
我们正在浪费自己的生命。
所以，我们该怎样解决这个问题？我们怎样才能最好地利用因特网的奇特之处(它已经给了我做我喜欢的事的能力)
而不会被它容易分散注意力的能力所影响？这是一个明显占据了前人思想的的问题，但却没有任何好的答案，从Aristotle到Lao Tzu（对Lolcats特别依赖）
我有一个好消息。这里有一个办法。这并不总是简单的，但我已经办到了。如果我能做到，那么任何人都可以做到。有三个小习惯：
1：设置一个时间限制。选择重要的事情去做，并且限制做这件事的时间。可能是一个小时，或者20分钟，或者甚至只是10分钟，
如果我们很难投入到这件事中。时间限制帮助我们提高注意力。如果你已经限制了时间去做一件事，你将不得不决定重要的是什么。
这也意味着你将不能做会花费大量时间的事情，但是一件很明确的事在X分钟内将会完成。当你决定发送邮件，时间限制也是很有用的--只要
花20分钟去尽可能多地发送你想发送的邮件。
2：关掉所有窗口。这意味着任何你电脑里可能的东西，但对于你手头上的任务不是必须的东西。如果你不需要用因特网来写东西，那就关掉它。
关掉邮件，所有通知和提醒你的消息，所有对于你的任务来说是不需要的程序。如果你需要把浏览器一直开着，关掉所有的标签--把它们标记一下，
或者把他们加入到一个稍后再看的服务器就像Instapape。当你做任务的时候，你可以一直开着这些网址。
3：在转换网页之前先停顿一下。因为你已经为你手头上的任务设置了时间限制，所以你要把其它的一切都关了，准备开始。。。但是然后你很想要查看邮件，Facebook或者Twitter，想要看看Instagram，Pinterest或Youtube上有什么新动态。停止。让自己停止5-10分钟。这是让其它两个习惯起作用的关键习惯。深呼吸。想想你是否真的想浪费生命每天花一整天做这些事情，或者你是否想做有意义的事。大多时间，都要选择做有意义的事。
这些都是小的习惯，你可以选择按这个做。当你的任务完成了，你可以给你自己几分钟时间放松一下，浏览一下你喜欢的网址，然后再次把它们关掉。但当你试着要关注时，要练习这几种习惯。它们对于生命只有很小的价值，而不是因注意力分散而浪费生命。
————2012/05/23(摘自有道学堂)
