It’s become apparent to me that my ability to focus is under assault, and it may be a problem that many in my position are dealing with. Numerous opportunities arise on a day-to-day basis, making it challenging to remain on track with any one of them. I see a direction for my business and work towards that, but the shifting sand makes progress slow and multidirectional. I can accept that and try to implement tools to help me focus, but I have the added layer of emotional turmoil. The reality is that everyone experiences some level of emotional tension in their lives. The growing challenge of focus may be a symptom of the times we live in.
I have often thought that the actual problem to address in business is entropy. The ever-growing pressure as everything moves from an orderly system into disorder. I think this manifests itself in the fragmented controls and systems that technology forces into our lives. The promise is a better life, but the reality is more systems we have to try to understand and the more annoying errors and alerts we need to bat down by digging through tech to understand. This is even worse if you operate a business, as you receive a double helping of this for both personal and business systems.
This is exacerbated by the fact that none of these systems we need to integrate into our lives are static. They are constantly being updated and “improved.” What you were able to do on your phone last week is now in a different place in settings and requires a trip to Google to find a tutorial on how to accomplish the same task today. That’s a simple example, but it illustrates the dilemma. Project that scenario into a business’s CRM software system or scheduling app, and entropy will be launched into an existential crisis.
For me, I think the bucket approach is going to rule in the short term. There are tools and opportunities with similar attributes that need to be clustered. Once those fall into place, time must be allocated for addressing the buckets. Results of that attention can be applied to an overall perspective to see what each bucket can contribute to the path forward. This will probably end up being another journal, and that’s ok. I have found great use for the journals I am already using. I have one for Personal thoughts, Business, and a very granular Gratitude journal. It is very telling to look back through them as I begin to write a new entry. The shifts are palpable and show both progress and areas that refuse to budge. For me, it’s a way to see entropy in action as well as a way to defeat it in ways that matter.
