Focus and Burnout

Lately, I've been feeling overwhelmed. Tasks and responsibilities keep piling on, and I see no end in sight for the short-term. If I don't complete X amount of tasks everyday or make substantial progress on at least X things in a day, I'll be behind. This constant state of worry has driven me to shirk on sleep and my short-term social responsibilities in order to try and fulfill my long-term responsibilities. But I've noticed that the sense of being overwhelmed increases everyday, and my ability to stay focused on the task at hand has dwindled. I'm guessing that cutting back on my sleep hours and not exercising good sleep hygeine has been compounding and I haven't been able to stay on task.

I recently watched a YouTube video where the creator, Sabrina, tried to resolve thier own focus issues. After reading a few books, they've found that most of them center around three points when it came to attention:

  1. Attention and focus are different concepts. Attention is a broad concept that boils down to our general awareness. Focus is the process that controls that awareness, concentrating it on something specific.
  2. Focus is finite. It is a limited and exhaustible resource. You can only really focus on one thing at a time, and your ability to do that will tire out the further you get from rest.
  3. Focus also filters out distractions. The more there are, the more of your focus is being wasted.

Towards the end of the video, the Sabrina's solution to their focus issues was to meditate. I've tried meditating in the past, but I could never stick with it. My mind would always wander or a constant stream of random thoughts would flow through my mind and it would feel like I'd wasted my time or that I'm not doing it correctly. Given that I'm feeling desperate to get my mind back in order, I'm establishing these goals for the next thirty days:

  1. Meditate at least 3 times a week for 10 minutes a day. I'll be using the Medito app for guided meditation.
  2. Improve my sleep hygiene, ensuring that I'm in bed by 11 pm to get 8 hours of sleep.
  3. Make more time for non-work-related activities and get back to the gym 3 times a week.

Long-term, I want to ensure these habits stick. By setting these smaller milestones as short-term goals, I hope to successfully make them long-lasting habits and have a meaningful impact on my attention and focus.