Focus is one of the primary disciplines that comes into play when pursuing life balance. Before I spend what will amount to many posts on focus and the role it has in contributing to a balanced life, I’d like to address perhaps the biggest factor preventing a focused life. Did you feel a bit of dissonance when you read the title of today’s post? The use of upper-case and lower-case letters created a bit of visual distraction, didn’t it?

Look around you, we live in a distracted world. Distractions divide and divert our attention, prevent concentration and focus. One definition of distraction is: that which amuses and entertains, which is highly ironic, since gaming and entertainment siphons off huge chunks of our time. Add in the mindless hours spent scrolling through social media feeds and the result is we are amusing ourselves to death. Interesting if you look at the word amuse in the Greek; “a” means not, muse means to think. Amuse means not to think.

Research studies reveal our phone takes up on average 3 hours and 16 minutes of someone’s day. The average person picks up their phone more than 1500 times a week that’s once every 5.5 minutes. The average office worker checks their email inbox 11 times an hour. No wonder we can’t focus and are constantly distracted!

According to one study the average person’s attention span is 8.25 seconds. I’m sorry what was I talking about? Oh yeah, attention span.” I highly question that study since most of life’s functions take much longer than 8.25 seconds. Now if you want to argue our attention is diverted about every 8.25 seconds, I’d believe it.  And don’t even get me started on multi-tasking. It’s a myth. You may be able to do two things at a time, but it is physiologically impossible to focus on two things at a time.

It’s not just devices and technology, which distract us. It’s all the things that vie for or divert our attention. It’s the advertisement and promotion campaigns, marketers attempting to grab our attention, even if just for a few seconds. Too many activities and busyness, are distractions. Certain relationships can cause unwanted distractions.

What’s distracting you? Name it and do something about it. Grey scale your phone, turn off notifications. Limit the amount of time you are amusing and simply entertaining yourself. It’s time to ditch the distractions. It will require focused discipline. But not only does it lead to a focused and balanced life, but one that is so much more productive and fulfilling.

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