Category: Senza categoria

There’s a neverending conversation about how to improve our focus, our attention, our performance.

One way to look at it is to view it through the “tools” lenses: Applications to help you, tricks and techniques to guide you, etc.

These are all great options, nonetheless there are alternatives. One of which is habits. 

One of the many issues with focus is that it is not our default action, we are dragged by thoughts, and we don’t have “focus on my current work” as our reaction. We don’t default to it.

Training for this, when possible, can be another way to achieve better focus.

I recently read somewhere that whatever we do consistently each day can have an enormous impact on our life.
I can see why, any daily practice, if done well, can change your life for the better.

After reading this piece, I instantly accepted it as something I believed. It has many details I relate to, like the fact that we always progress and that consistency is key.
But this leads me to another question: How do we build our beliefs? And, more importantly, what are yours?

In this context, when I talk about beliefs, I talk about “quotes you live by”, or “things you think are a foundational part of the world we live in”. Something you continue to pursue and apply, quotes you go back to frequently.

Understanding our beliefs and where they come from might shed some light on how and why did we change, what moves us and, ultimately, what we are.

The 4-day workweek is all over the news this week. It seems some companies are experimenting with it to see the benefits.

I’ve done it before, and can confirm: it helps with focus, productivity and stress. It worked really well for me, nevertheless I’m wondering if we are only focusing on one part of what “working” means.

Productivity is beautiful, but it’s always the same story about how we can do more and more and more.
How we can squeeze more work, more efficiency, into our role.

I get it, I get the values for the companies and the rewards for the employees, but should we focus all of our attention on this?
When I read the book “Four thousand weeks” by Oliver Burkeman, one thing that stood out for me was how we try to adjust our daily life “to be more productive at work”.

I’m guilty of that, both in the past and now. I’m guilty of favoring work over life, of thinking that I should avoid experiences in life to be sure I can work at my very best, my 100%, my best productivity.
It’s this idea of performance that, while definitely useful, can be a little broken.

Should we really adjust only for performance?
What about creativity? Where do we place creativity in this grand design?
Creativity has different requirements, it happens when the brain can connect the dots, outside the daily chaos.

Lastly: What’s the end goal of productivity? We can go to 100%, but that’s pretty much it. What we, humans, can do differently is have new ideas that will improve productivity on other levels, innovations that will change the paradigm.
Those innovations are often born out of that creative state of mind, not that “Productive” state of mind.
By looking at things from a different angle, by stepping away, by taking a deep breath, we can be more “productive”, without being more productive while it happens.

These are 2 sides of the story, there might be a third one I’m not considering, but I guess the point is clear. 
Is productivity all we should aim for?

I try to meditate daily, focusing mostly on breath. This resembles a mindfulness meditation if you want.

One thing this meditation is teaching me is to fail elegantly. To get up again.

You see, it’s really hard (at least for me) to stay focused on the meditation. My mind wanders frequently.
Every time it wonders, I pick it up and gently move it again onto focusing on my breath.

I constantly fail. I fail every single day.
This failure, though, is part of the work I need to do.
The failure is part of the journey.

To bear with it, to sustain failures and continue like nothing happened (but learning from it), is part of what allows me to improve, again and again.

It’s not easy, and there’s always the temptation to give up, to feel bored, to just surrender to the many feelings I have.

This doesn’t happen, though, and part of the reason is that I’ve accepted failure as part of the work I need to do. 

Long time ago I used to go to comics/manga festivals. I remember going each year to Lucca Comics, a famous festival here in Italy.

From time to time, it happens that I go back there, or that I notice some people going to a similar festival nearby. They’re often young, enthusiastic, yet they feel kinda silly to me.

I wonder if I would have said the same about myself, or if there’s some kind of difference. When I say silly, I’m not talking about how they dressed, more like how people behaved.

I remember one or two years ago we were walking and a group of cosplayers passed nearby. They were talking of how one girl didn’t invite them to her birthday.

A shame, I agree, but at the same time two thoughts appeared in my mind: Either that girl didn’t consider them friend (and it would show, right? It would be strange to not grasp the relationship between you and another person) or she was strange and didn’t invite them because of that (and again, I’m quite sure there might have been some clues about that).

Maybe all this changes with age. Possibly while we age we learn, and the price we have to pay to learn is part of that careless enthusiasm, that makes you jump on a train, not knowing the destination, ignoring the clues or the signals from people around you, to make a ride you wouldn’t have done if you started thinking about it.

Who knows who’s the silly one, right?