I believe that focus is not just about eliminating the distractions of the squirrels in my head; it also has to do with having a strong concentration muscle.

The ability to focus is not just limited to not being interrupted. It is also dependent on the mind’s ability to stay on track. I think a lot of the talk that is going on right now is focusing on the interruptions and minimizing them. And this is a good first step. But in order to truly focus, you have to be able to stretch your concentration.

Concentration, Endurance and Percussion

I have known for some time that my concentration levels are not what they used to be. I have always blamed the amount of distraction that is going on around me.

A few weeks ago my percussion teacher assigned me an exercise known as the “Stone Killer”. It’s purpose is to build, by repetition, speed and endurance of single-stroke sticking.

My teacher told me to repeat each line 50 (yes you read that right) times. The whole exercise would take about 15 minutes.

I didn’t mind the repetition count, and I didn’t protest. I have done this sort of exercise before to build muscle memory and speed – my college flute professor had us playing scales starting on the lowest note of the flute to the highest and repeating the scales starting on every note of the octave. It’s boring as heck, but very effective.

So I started on my practice. RRRR LLLL RRRR LLLL RRRR LLLL…what number was I on?

It became apparent to me that the endurance I was going to build was not just physical, but also mental. Because I had lost the ability to focus and count 50 measures of repeated pattern.

This was pretty horrifying to me. One of the things required as an ensemble musician is the ability to count measures. Granted, I don’t do ensemble work right now, but it was shocking evidence of my inability to concentrate.

I told my instructor about the mental endurance, and jokingly said I blame my phone. He told me he had seen a similar deterioration in himself during COVID, when he had spent a lot more time on his phone. He didn’t hesitate to blame his phone.

Two Sides of the Same Coin

Most of the articles I found during my research talked about increasing focus by limiting distraction. And that is a very important part of the process.

It’s impossible to concentrate – to even start – if there are things buzzing, beeping, interrupting your train of thought, waving for your attention. You have to be able to limit the distractions, no matter which of your senses they are capturing. Sight, sound, smell, touch, taste…all can be distracting, and every effort must be made to minimize these.

I also believe that in order to truly focus, you have to have a strong concentration muscle. Like any other muscle, it can be trained and strengthened. This is where the true focus comes in: the ability to not only ignore your senses, but also to make your mind laser in on something and stay there.

The Three Types of Concentration

Concentration is centered in the brain, and there are three different types of mind energy that fall into this classification.

• Engaging the mind: this is the ability to stay engaged on one topic for long periods of time.
• Emptying the mind: this is the ability to let thoughts float through without engaging them.
• Daydreaming: allowing the brain to go where it wants to without trying to direct it.

Each of these requires a different set of concentration skills: the first to focus on something specific; the second to focus on nothing; and the third to focus on observation.

Increasing concentration

I believe that concentration is like a muscle. And like any muscle it can be strengthened. It takes dedicated practice to increase the types of concentration, but there are proven ways to make it happen.

Engaging the Mind Practice

Music

If you are a musician, this type of practice is easy. Most musical instruments have exercises that are designed to increase flexibility of hands and muscle memory. If you’re a percussionist, this can be in the form of the Stone Killer Exercise. If you play flute, Trevor Wye’s book on technique* will do the trick.

And if you can’t find anything, do the scale exercise my flute professor assigned: pick a key and start on the lowest note of your instrument, and play a scale all the way to the highest (note: you may not be starting on the tonic of the scale). Move up a single note at a time, still in the same key, until you do the full octave. Then move to the next key in the circle of fifths.

Athletics

Work on your endurance by repeating the same exercise over and over. Count each repetition. This could be free throws, serves, hitting a baseball, even tossing cornhole bags. If you are walking, count the number of steps and groups of steps using some non-typical grouping like 3, 5 or 7. Of course, always be aware of your surroundings as you do this so you don’t injure yourself.

Crafting/Creative

Engage in your hobby with deliberate intention. Count the number of stitches or paintbrush strokes made. You can even count the number of stirs you are giving a cake batter!

Games

There are games on the market that will help you increase your concentration. Brain Training is available on multiple platforms. Even the 70s Simon* game can help you engage (and it comes in a smaller version* now too!)

Emptying the Mind Practice (aka Meditation)

Meditation comes in many different formats, but to practice emptying the mind, you must pick one that isn’t a guided meditation that will engage your ind..

Breath meditation is good for a beginner. You focus on your inhale/exhale and let any thoughts just float through. Having a sound or word can help increase the focus.

Make sure that you aren’t lying down when you do meditation practice. This can often lead to falling asleep! But as a meditation teacher I once had told me: it’s OK to fall asleep because your body must need the rest.

Visualization can also help take the mind to the next level of emptying.

Even some of the meditation apps, like Calm, can assist with the breath and emptying meditations.

Daydreaming Practice

Daydreaming practice seems counter-intuitive if we are trying to build concentration. After all, we’re trying to contain the squirrels, not let them take over.

But daydreaming allows our mind to make connections between ideas and thoughts that it might not if we were directing its flow. It’s great for creativity, and allows us to have a break from other concentration and distraction avoidance.

The difference between daydreaming and typical mind squirrels is that we usually try to silence and still the squirrels. During daydreaming, we let our squirrels frolic and observe what they do.

Daydreaming can be done sitting or walking. And it has loads of benefits outside of increasing concentration – even helping us avoid negative behavior.

Build Those Concentration Muscles!

Building your concentration muscle is just as important as learning to deal with distractions on the quest for focus. Remember that concentration can be built. Just take it slow, and don’t be upset if you can’t go for long. Like any muscle-building activity, endurance comes with practice and time.

Disruptions are a part of life. But depending on how we approach them, they can be minor blips, or major derailments. Using anchor points to assess the level of disruption and modifying routines, both in simplifying or complicating, allow me to weather disruptions without long-term consequences.

Links from show:

• The Importance of Routines
• What To Put In Your Morning Routine
• Building a Morning Routine That Matters
• How To Create A Productive Morning Routine

Support me at Patreon: You can find all the episodes over at Patreon.

I am infinitely distractible, particularly when I am doing something that hasn’t captured my imagination. I believe that concentration can be learned. I’ve managed to improve my concentration skills over the years. Here are some things I do to improve concentration:

Single Task. Multi-tasking doesn’t work. When you are trying to do multiple things at once, your attention is automatically fragmented, and you will not be able to concentrate on one to the exclusion of the other (otherwise it would be time-slicing, not multi-tasking). If you focus on one thing, you won’t be interrupted by your brain shouting as it switches tasks.

Change Tasks. If your lack of focus is coming from a long stretch of the same activity, change it up. Varying what you can do can refresh your mind.

Do Five More. I am a proponent of using a timer  to get things started, but this one takes another look on it. “Before I take a break, I need to [insert your five things here]”. For example, write five lines of code, pull up five more weeds, practice five more minutes.

Get Rid of Preoccupations. Chances are the thing your are worrying about is something beyond your control. Get rid of the worries and it will be easier to concentrate.

Take Breaks. While this seems like the antithesis to concentration, in long haul tasks it is better to take a break than fight through fatigue.

I find that practicing these five things helps me concentrate – even when I am sure that I can’t.

It has always seemed to me that memory plays a huge role in my level of productivity. Some days I can’t Remember what I was doing from one moment to the next.

I’ve tried to improve my memory at various points in my life. Sadly, and I wish this really was the joke it seems to be, I forgot I had purchased a memory improvement book. I found out when I purchased another copy of the book and put it on my shelf.

I learned quite a bit about memory and how we remember things during my teacher training. I saw enough in the classroom to see that these things were actually true. But most people aren’t aware of what it takes to remember things.

Today I have an info graphic that talks about 15 ways to improve your memory. The infographic was provided by GetVoIP. You can check out their take on the infographic at 15 Ways to Improve Your Memory for Maximum Productivity

Many thanks to GetVOIP for sharing this!

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When you sit down at your desk, are you eager to get to work, or are you put off? Maybe your desk is littered with reminders of unfinished tasks. Or perhaps there is just too much stuff there for you to think. In any case, it is easy to get rid of the distractions and reclaim a productive workspace.

It had gotten to the point where I didn’t want to sit at my desk. I was actively avoiding it, preferring to work outside the house or on the kitchen table. Or even worse, avoiding the work altogether. Since it happened both at my regular desk and my writing studio, I had to figure out why I didn’t want to work in those places. The answer was that both workspaces were loaded with distracting clutter.

Distraction? Or Useful?

There are things that are useful on a workspace, and there are things that are useless, and there are things that are useful but only used rarely.

If you take a look at your workspace, really look, what do you see? Even better, if you can move everything to another location, look to see what was on your workspace (this is a good way to get your surface cleared so you can wipe it down, by the way)

I will bet that there are things on your desk that you don’t even realize are there anymore. How much of it is useful on a daily basis (pens, keyboard, notepad)? How much of it is useful but doesn’t get used daily (stapler, tape dispenser, hole punch)? And how much is distraction (decorations, photos)?

Let’s walk through simplifying your desktop so that you can eliminate as many distractions as possible.

Pens

How many pens do you use every day? How many do you have on your desktop?

Pens are one of my vices. Since I am left-handed, finding a pen that works for me is rare. When I do find a type of pent that works, I have a tendency to stock up, because who knows when I will find another pen that works?

So this leads me to have dozens of pens on my desk. Some are useless to me, because they smudge when I use them. Most are duplicates that work. But how many pens do I really need?

Before I cleared this out, I had a mug full of pens and then piles of pens behind my computer, in my drawers, and a couple of pouches full of pens. I donated almost 50 pens to a teacher I know, and I am left with very little in my pencil mug: three mechanical pencils with three sizes of lead; a blue, black and pink pen; a yellow highlighter; and a sonic screwdriver. I also keep my expensive monogrammed pen from a good friend on my keyboard and use that most of the time.

Challenge: How many pens do you have on your desktop? How many can you get rid of? If you haven’t used it in two weeks, put it aside and see if you miss it in the next week. If you don’t, get rid of it.

A good place to get rid of writing implements are teachers. Students, particularly high school students, seem to think that they can take notes and write tests without a pen or pencil. Most teachers buy packs of pens and pencils out of their own money to supply their students.

Office Supplies

Office supplies tend to be left out on the desktop, even when they aren’t used regularly. You might have a stapler or tape dispenser or hole punch on your desk. How often do you use them?

In my writing studio, I had a miniature set of office supplies in a container that looks like a keyboard. It contains a single hold punch, stapler, paperclip holder and keybaord brush. Yet I rarely, if ever, used it. There was also a calculator, file tabs and small sticky notes. On my main workspace I had notepads, piles of sticky notes, a little pile of binder clips and my screwdriver set.

While all of these things are useful, none of them are used on a daily basis. So I found spots in my drawer to keep them. (My stapler and tape already live in a drawer)

Challenge: how many items on your desktop do you not use daily? Find another place to keep them. Or get rid of them if you haven’t used them in the last six months.

Decorations

Ah, decorations. We want to make our workspaces personalized, but it often ends up being cluttered. How often do you look at the decorations? Look around and see what is there collecting dust or pulling your attention away from your work.

My main workspace has a bulletin board over it. Every inch of that was covered with various things: inspirational sayings, photos, mementos, cartoons…you know what I mean. Same with my writing studio. The board to my right was covered in cartoons, bumper stickers, things my daughter had drawn. In addition, I have a line with various things clipped to it (so many I couldn’t clearly see any of them) plus my plot bunny, various owl statues and an Arrow figurine.

Everything was taken out, evaluated, and either found new homes or was put on the giveaway pile. Now as I look around either of my desks, I see nothing I want to focus on or play with. On the line above my desk, there is a picture of Thomas Jefferson, my vision board for the year, and two reminders: one to simplify, and the other thing to keep working on my goals. On my board is a calendar, my daughter’s art and a reminder that pigs don’t sing.

Challenge: How many decorations are in your field of vision when you sit down to work? Can you even see them clearly? Take all of the decorations down and evaluate them. Only return the ones that will inspire you to work. You can always rotate things in later.

Papers and the Dreaded File Pile

Papers breed. There is no other explanation for it. So even if you run paperless most of the time, you are still going to end up with papers on your desktop.

Even though I am paperless, I still end up with mail, school papers, sticky notes, old calendar pages and pieces of paper foisted on me by others. Both my regular desk and writing studio had papers everywhere. Even with a stacked basket system in both places, the bins were full.

Most of the things in the bins and on the desktop were either garbage or needed to be filed. This is where the dreaded file pile came in. The filing was thrown in to a pile, to be sorted and put away.

I sat down and took 30 minutes to completely clear all the papers. They were all filed quickly, and the task I had been putting off because I had been dreading actually took about 10 minutes.

Challenge: Go through the papers on your desk. Either deal with them, recycle them, or file them. But don’t leave them sitting!

Miscellaneous Carp

This last category is for anything that doesn’t fall into the other categories. These items are things that don’t belong on your workspace, but ended up there anyway.

In my case I found a pin in the shape of a balloon, a figurine that needed to be glued back onto its base, a flashlight, several rocks, an empty lip balm tube, and a non-working solar-powered lucky cat.

I am unsure why any of these things ended up on my workspaces. So they were put in their proper places: the garbage, other places in the house, the garden, and the workbench.

Challenge: look at everything else that was on your workspace. Put it away or get rid of it.

Summary

For the most part, we have become blind to the things in our workspace. Yet at some level, they pull at our attention and interfere with what we need to do. By removing everythig from the workspace and then evaluating the categories of items, you can give yourself a distraction-free and more productive workspace in no time!

Image by mkosut. Licensed under Creative Commons. Text added.

So you’ve decided to pare down your possessions. You pull out what you no longer want, and there is a big pile of it. What now? Throwing it out seems like a waste when most of the stuff is almost unused.

I’m getting rid of a lot of stuff. It amazes me how much I have accumulated; it amazes me how much I don’t use. Yet I can’t bear to throw things out when someone else would be able to get use – and joy – out of them.

The Result of Decluttering

So far on my “tidying journey”  I have gone through clothes, books, papers and electronics. I’ve also been going through other areas of my house, even though they are not yet on the list, such as the kitchen, as I do my cleaning.

So I have a big pile of stuff. And what can I do with it all?

But Where Should It Go?

The trash is the first thing that pops into mind. And I will say this: if the item is unusable, stained, torn, broken or otherwise compromised or underwear/socks, throw it out. Don’t make a charity use its precious manpower sorting through your garbage.

But there are places for usable things to go.

Battered Women’s Shelters

My charity of choice is our local battered women’s shelter. They pick up items, keep the things they can use for those women and children landing on the doorstep, and send the rest to a thrift store.

Items my local shelter takes are clothing (women’s and children’s), household items, toys and games, school supplies and outerwear.

Our local shelter sends a truck out to pick up donations regularly and will make a special trip if I call them.

Thrift Store Donations

We have a lot of thrift stores in our area, and these are a good place to take other items. They will take everything that the battered women’s shelter does, plus just about everything else, including furniture. I have to cart everything to a donation station, but this inconvenince is offset by the people who unload the car.

Libraries

I have two different city libraries within 3 miles of me. My own city takes donations and sells the books on Amazon. So if the books are older or not of “general interest” they will be rejected. For that reason, I go to the next city over, where they accept all books and sell them at a jumble sale twice a year.

Both of the libraries will take empty CD cases as well, and we generally take a batch over once or twice a year.

The Ads

If you want to sell something, you can always take out an ad on a service like Craigslist. Please be cautious, though: don’t meet the person at your house if at all possible, never meet a buying alone, and never, ever let the people into your house. Our local police precinct allows Craigslist transactions to happen in their parking lot.

Freecycle

I am a big fan of Freecycle. You can get rid of the oddest stuff on Freecycle, even broken things that people will sell for scrap or use for parts. My local Freecycle puts the burden of picking up things on the receiver, and people tell you when they will stop by to pick up. I always leave everything on the front porch, tagged with their name, so that I am not waiting for them to pick up at a certain time.

I have gotten rid of a broken Roomba (parts), a patio table whose safety glass top had shattered (scrap), a queen mattress (taken by a salior who was geo-baching), all sorts of kitchen stuff that I had upgraded or no longer used (crockpots, breadmaker, hand blender, donut machine, deep fryer, all my bar ware).

Recycle

This doesn’t really count, but since I am a green gal, I have to put in a word for recycling. Know what your municipality will recycle, and before throwing something in the trash, see if you can recycle it. This keeps stuff out of the landfill and is an important part of being green.

A special word about electronics: most electronics can be recycled for the metals contained. Some stores off recycling, such as Best Buy. Sometimes municipalities will host an electronic recycling event. Please recycle electronics properly! It keeps harmful metals out of the environment and water, and means we don’t have to mine so much for new electronics.

Summary

Your stuff doesn’t have to go in the trash once you’re done with it. If it is in good shape, pass it on. You can find many ways to make your stuff available to others, like charities, libraries, ads and Freecycle.

Image by eelke dekker. Licensed under Creative Commons. Text added.

Most of us have heard the phrase “use it or lose it” when it comes to time off. But it can be applied in an effort to remove distraction from your life. Today we will explore five places to apply “use it or lose it” in the context of decluttering.

The Concept Behind Use It Or Lose It

Use it or lose it simply means you need to use what is hand, or it will be taken away.

If it is in reference to time off, you lose paid vacation that you have earned. Your company takes it away.

If it is in reference to stuff, it means that all things have a limited time when they can be used. You should take advantage of that time, or get rid of it.

My Decluttering Project

Near the end of 2017 I felt overwhelmed. It wasn’t just the schedule or the tasks, but also the weight of all my accumulated stuff that pressed down on me.

Stuff really does expand to fill all available space, and after 15 years in my house I have seen our level of possessions grow far too quickly.

So in January 2018 I embarked on a decluttering project. Flylady’s mantra of little at a time doesn’t work for me – long experience has shown that as I move stuff out, it just moves back in again in a different form. So I decided to give Marie Kondo’s method  a try again. I had worked her modules on clothing and books (partially) in the summer of 2016, and I had been able to maintain that leve with little effort after that.

As of the writing of this article, I have moved through clothing and books completely and I am about 3/4 of the way through papers.

Use It Or Lose It

So here is where Use It Or Lose It applies to decluttering:

“Good” stuff

I was raised by parents who grew up at the tail end of the Great Depression in rural areas further depressed by poor economies. Both of my parents had the habit of saving things “for good.” There were special dishes, a special tea set, special clothes, special perfume, special jewelry. I absorbed this attitude and brought it with me unknowing into my own adulthood.

But things that aren’t used are just being hoarded. Too many people die with their things saved “for good” untouched.

So as I go through my things, I am aware of things that have that “for good” label attached. If they are not in regular use, then they are sent on their way to someone who will use them.

And that includes the “good” china – we are now using the dining room more frequently with those dishes.

If you’re not using something special, is it really all that special? Either get it into regular use, or let it go to someone who will use them.

Knowledge

Most specialized knowledge is not evergreen. Things that you learned in school, unless they are foundational things like math, have a limited application. They go out of date as things expire.

So as I went through our books, I looked at all my school books. Only those that had evergreen content (like linear algebra, basic algorithms, trig) were allowed to stay – and then only if I had needed the book in the past two years. Same with the books from my husbands master’s degree – all those books on the political climate of early century now are out of date.

If the knowledge is either out of date or not being used, pass it on to someone who can learn from it.

Clothing

Too many people hang on to a variety of sizes of clothing in their closet. They hope they will get back into that size again one day. And they very well might do it.

However by that time, those clothes that are hanging in the closet will be out of date.

If you’re not using the clothes, pass them on to someone who might use them before they go out of date.

Notes

I had gotten rid of all my class notes (or so I thought) a few years ago. But as I was going through my papers, I found all of the handouts and notes I had taken when I was pursuing my teaching license. Very little of the material was useful when I was teaching (because when you are “on” in front of a class, you can’t refer to a pile of notes for alternate methods); and it is of no use now that I have left education for IT.

Same with old notebooks. I ran across a few old journals that I skimmed through and promptly ripped apart and recycled. I will never use them again, and I certainly don’t want anyone else to use them either.

If you have notes that you haven’t looked at in six months or more, you’re not using it. And since they will probably be of no use to anyone else, go ahead and lose them to the recycling bin.

Manuals

Another legacy from my parents is that when you buy something, you need to hang on to all the instructions and warranties. I guess that made sense in an era where things were meant to last and papers were not easily replaced, e.g. before the Internet.

So having absorbed that attitude I tucked all the warranties and papers into five magazine holders in my closet. I had a task on my task list for almost three years to go through them and organize them. With Marie Kondo, though, I pulled it all out and started pitching things. It turns out I didn’t need to organize them. I needed to purge these papers that hadn’t been looked at in years. I ended up with five items – one to pass on to a co-worker for a device I had gifted him, three sets of instructions for cleaning items that are infrequently cleaned, and one receipt for paying a traffic ticket for expired tags.

Some of my manuals live in my cookbook place. And I use them because they tell me how to use the appliance to the best advantage. But anything else hadn’t been used since the days they were shoved into the files.

If you’re not referring to those manuals, lose them into recycling.

Memorabilia

One of the habits I ingrained when I first tackled simplifying my life (back in the early 2000’s) was that I don’t buy souvenirs that don’t have a purpose.

So rather than buying a fridge magnet at South of the Border, I bought a can coolie, which I use every time I drink soda. Instead of buying mouse ears at Disneyworld, I bought earrings. On a trip to Montreal, instead of a mug, I bought an umbrella (which was also useful at the time). Instead of buying an I Heart NY magnet or mug or sticker, I got myself an M&M blanket, which sits in my chilly writing studio.

None of these things have the typical souvenir branding; they just remind me of the trip when I use them.

Sadly, most houses I visit have memorabilia all over the place. It’s not useful stuff, it’s just collections displayed on shelves and horizontal surfaces. It doesn’t get used, it just sits and collects dust.

Most people don’t enjoy dusting. So why keep things that collect dust? If the memories are so important, take a picture of the item before you get rid of it.

Summary

If you are not using something, then all it is doing is taking up space in your environment and mind. If you are trying to lighten up (physically and mentally) and are decluttering, look at each item and ask if you are using it. If you are not, either start using it or get rid of it.

It’s amazing. So many people don’t take in the state of their immediate environment until it comes time to buckle down and do something.

I never see the piles of paper on my desk waiting to be processed until I need to design something. I never see the emails waiting to be filed until I need to send a difficult email. I never see the partially empty coffee cups until I need to plan out my month’s blogging schedule. I never see the state of my baseboards until it is time to empty the dishwasher and cook dinner. I never see the broken pencils and dead pens until it is time to write the novel. It’s all about the things that I see that distract me from the difficult or undesirable work ahead.

Don’t Think You’re Immune

Don’t think that you are exempt from this.

Few of us instinctively will tackle difficult or tedious tasks with the same enthusiasm as tackling easy tasks. Few of us will buckle down and get to work without seeing if there are easy tasks to be done.

Unless you have a superpower of focus, you are going to be distracted by things in your visual field. You will see them out of the corner of your eye, or have to move them in order to accomplish the task. You will know they need to be done, and although these things are rarely important, the visual reminder of them will nag at you.

We want to feel productive for the least amount of effort.

So where are three ways to get past the distraction of things in front of you.

How To Avoid The Distraction

All of these methods rely on the “out of sight, out of mind” rule. Get the items out of your sight, and you will not be distracted.

Use A Timer

The first method is to use a timer and give yourself ten minutes at most to deal with the distractions. Throw away the paper, move the cups to the kitchen, sort your email into folders to be dealt with later.

Make this quick clean as part of your starting of the task at hand, a sort of springboard into the task. You will then quickly segue into the more difficult task without sucking up all of your working time doing low-value items.

This works because it helps your mind process the distraction while keeping it reasonable and not detracting from the more difficult task.

The Box Method

If you still can’t get past the junk, grab and empty box and put everything in that is distracting you. Then put the box out of sight. (I do not recommend this for old cups of coffee – get those to the kitchen, or leftover food – pitch it in the trash!) This includes decorations, toys, papers, pens, pieces of other projects, spent calendar pages, cords, chargers, cats, planners, notebooks and other distractions.

This works because it removes everything that is pulling at your visual field.

Move Locations

This removes the distractions from your visible field by changing what you see. If you are really having a hard time concentrating because of the visual distractions, move to a place where you can’t see any.

Book a conference room. Move to an empty cube. Go out to eat (in the case of my baseboards, above). Go somewhere where those distractions aren’t present.

This works because it trades the things that are distracting you for things that won’t. Warning: don’t trade one set of distractions for another in this case!

Summary

If you are being distracted from a difficult or tedious task, you can get past it by setting a timer and dealing with the distractions for a limited amount of time; put all the distractions in a box and get them out of your sight; or move locations to remove yourself from the distractions.

Image by Chika. Licensed under Creative Commons. Text added.