Create a dedicated focus nook
Aspirational goals typically require some level of focus. This is unfortunate. Focus is hard and aspirational goals are pretty much the most important ones.
Practical betterments is all about one-off actions to improve your life continuously — however marginally. The whole point of them is they don't require sustained will-power to accomplish.
While small one-off actions can help improve your life, they can't make you read a book, write an essay, apply for funding, quit smoking, or move on from Eduardo. Only sustained focus and will-power can achieve such things.
We cannot create will-power from nothing, but what we can do is set ourselves up with the best possible chance of achieving and sustaining it.
The world is full of designs that divert our attention away from our goals and towards the goals of others — from social media companies that snatch your attention to casinos lulling people into financial ruin. These industries happily pay designers to manipulate you.
This is the first in a series of practical betterments where we'll use the same design principles to manipulate ourselves into achieving our goals.
We'll start by creating a dedicated space to do just that.
Why a dedicated focus area helps you focus
Whatever the thing is you need to focus on, having a dedicated space to do it will help. There are a number of reasons:
- You can design the space to make it easier to focus. A space where you can enter the zone.
- You will condition yourself to focus when you're using the space. We are animals.
- Other people will know you're focusing. They'll be less likely to interrupt your flow.
- A defined space can help switch you to 'focus mode' when you enter it. Physically moving from one context to another shifts your mind into that new context. If you've ever experienced leaving one room to get something, only to forget why you left in the first place, you've experienced the power a context shift. If you have ever felt compelled to go to a cafe to do work you have required a shift in context — or possibly a coffee.
Ways of making a dedicated focus nook
If possible the area you focus in should be a nook — a small defined space. A small space has fewer distractions than a big one, and a well defined space will prevent spaces with other uses from overlapping our new focus space.
You may not have empty space in your home waiting to become a focus nook. You may already live in a nook with little room for an additional nook within a nook. You may already have an unofficial focus space that needs to be nookified.
Here are some ways of defining a focus nook:
Physical barriers
Probably the most effective nook is one defined by physical barriers. You can achieve this by…
- taking advantage of existing walls
- moving furniture around
- hanging curtains
- excavating a cave
Visual demarcation
You can visually define a space by…
- Hanging pictures so their edges align with the nook's boundaries
- Mark the boundary with tape
- Place a rug or mat on the floor
- Decorate the space in a different tone to the rest of the room
- Use lighting to separate the space
Thoughts on nook placement
Here are some things to consider before deciding on a location for your nook.
- Face a wall. Looking outwards into a space or out of a window could be distracting.
- Don't have a door directly behind you. The possibility of someone sneaking up behind you is distracting. It is better to keep doorways in your peripheral vision.
- Don't have a window directly behind you. If you use a screen for work the glare from the sun can be annoying.