How to focus

In the comments of the last post, the question of how to get into a state of deep focus was brought up. There is a way to do everything and I think that this video shows the very extreme of what is necessary to focus.

Meet the Amazing Microsculptor

There are a few key elements that I think are important to extreme focus.

You need to determine exactly what you need to work on. If your working on a big project this means precisely identifying the work that needs the focus. In my example of the animation, I knew I needed the focus for the actual act of animation, of drawing. That is only one small step of a much larger set of things that needed to be done. I would suggest excluding all things are extraneous to the extreme focus work. Exclude preparation and finishing work. Reduce this segment of work to it's most dense form. If this means breaking up a larger project into many smaller sections, than by all means do that.

With a specific piece of work segmented from the rest as requiring extreme focus, start to develop a plan to do it. Schedule a time to do it, make all of the arrangements to be ready to do the work. This can mean cleaning your work space. Getting all of your tools prepared. Writing out detailed outlines. Doing some practice runs. All of these things need to get your mind ready for the work ahead. Allow the work to stew in your head for a few days before you do it.

I don't think this next advice is as obvious as you think once you hear it. Know your body and your brain, and prepare them as well. If this means getting enough sleep, get it. If this means eating good food, eat it. If this means drinking coffee, or not drink coffee, take the correct course of action (I can't focus well after drinking coffee, I think of hundreds of ideas, but I can't work). Take the time to warm up your brain with something before you start your work. Read over all of you outlines and really get prepared. In the video he makes it clear that he knows what works for him, that is why he can do things that are seemingly impossible. You need to figure out what will work for you.

Now just do the work. Turn off the music, turn off the web browsers, shut the door, turn down the lights, get everyone out of the room, tell them to stay away. Get to work. You may need to stay some willpower to stay on track, but as I said in the previous post, this gets stronger overtime, so start with realistic amounts of serious focus.

After you've done your work, make sure to take note of what worked, what didn't and then next time improve upon it.

You can't just jump into deep focused work, the key is preparation. When I shoot my film last year, that was eight intense hours in a camera room, but I had prepared for roughly 4 months for that moment, it made it really easy to focus, even if it still was a strain.

Hopefully this is useful to some. If you have other tips, please leave them in the comments.

Kyler