On not having focus

One of the things that I struggle a lot with these days is focus. Because of that, I realized I cannot longer do deep and focused work. I spend my days context-switching all the time, and although I’ve got used to it, I don’t like it.

There are several reasons why that happens to me. The first, and well-known these days, are social networks. You’ve probably seen me talking about them in the past, so here I go again. I tend to spend my free time doing endless scrolling to keep up. I think that’s one of the main contributors to feeling exhausted, yet I can’t stop doing it. Moreover, at work there’s a lot going on. Because of the size of the company, and all the context I’ve got over the past years, I spend my days helping here and there: sharing context with other people, unblocking the users of our tools, digesting information that is floating in the organization. Again, I think I’ve got better at this, but I miss having focus.

On top of all the above, I’m so curious that I can’t stop exploring new ideas and problems to solve. As a result, my mental energy scatters across many different places, and I end up nor learning nor doing anything. I think the English saying for what happens to me is “Biting off more than you can chew” (thanks Google).

So here’s what I’m going to try. First, I’ll accept my time and energy boundaries and be mindful about them. I’ll continue learning how to prioritize and say no to things. Both, at work and in open-source duties. Moreover, I’ll center my open-source efforts around only two projects, Tuist and Buildify. As much as I can, I’ll try to spend less time on social networks (attempt number 125125).

Hope you are having a great week and stay safe!