Remove visual clutter from your focus nook
This Practical Betterment assumes you have already created a dedicated focus nook.
Slot machines are meticulously designed to get people to focus on a screen for as long as possible. The longer they sit the more money the casino makes.
As part of my research for this series of Practical Betterments I took myself to a casino to experience this first hand. I work on a laptop and was interested in if I could borrow some ideas from casinos to help me focus for long stretches looking at a small screen.
My trip to the casino
First they wouldn't let me in without ID — but I explained that it was a research project and showed the bouncer my copy of Addiction by Design by Natasha Dow Schüll. He let me, but not before assuring me that the book wouldn't help me win.
Once in, I asked an attendant how to use the slots, to my delight she took me to what can only be described as a nook full of machines.
I got £20 of credit for the machines which is apparently not very much.
My mental image of slot machines was patrons sitting on stool-like seats, leaning in, with their eyes glued to small screens or spinning reels. Analogous to staring at my small screen at home.
The last time I'd seen a slot machine in person was as a child exploring the Las Vegas strip — I wasn't allowed to play on the slots though, or elope, or anything fun. This was back when they had white tigers everywhere so it was pretty dangerous.
I was disappointed to discover that my mental image was dramatically outdated. Modern slot machines consist of a huge screen almost from floor to ceiling. The bottom of the screen curves towards the player who sits in a comfy reclining chair. It is entirely immersive. Unless you actively turn, you see almost nothing but the screen. The chair has buttons in the armrests so only the most minor of movements is needed to play.
Casinos want you to experience full immersion — if you can see or hear anything else your thoughts could wander. Your game play might slow or you might remember that there is a life outside the casino and leave.
Now that we're living in the future, game manufacturers can cheaply and easily design machines with screens so big they block out everything else. In the before times a similar experience was achieved by having the screens recessed into the machines. Players would lean in blocking their view of the rest of the world.
I sat there pressing the button to spin the wheel watching my money disappear. I thought of all my money saving practical betterments, the things I would normally do to save £20. I was starting to wonder if this was a total waste.
Lessons learned
Ideally this story would end with me losing my money and we'd all learn a lesson about the dangers of gambling. Unfortunately I ended up leaving with more money than I went in with — I guess I'm just really good at slot machines! £9 of pure profit!
I eagerly told the bouncer — he didn't care at all.
Instead of learning a moral lesson, we can learn a practical one, by applying some of this slot machine immersion logic to our focus nook.
Below is a detailed graphical representation of a focus nook — with the object of focus surrounded by visual distractions.
- A shows our focus nook before any intervention has taken place.
- B shows the effect of enlarging the object of focus or leaning in closer to it. This can be achieved by switching to a larger screen, or changing your seating arrangements.
- C The simplest solution. Remove any visual clutter from your field of view while you're focusing in your nook. Leave only things that relate directly to the goals of your focus.
My focus nook is a chair and a desk against a blank wall. To my right is another blank wall and to my left is the side of a cabinet. Unless I turn I can't see anything but my computer. My nook lure is placed behind my right shoulder so once I'm working I can't be distracted by it. Every other wall in the room has nice things hanging on it — only the focus nook is blank.