Identifying Your Creative Focus

Far too often I’ve sat down to work only to be distracted by an endless onslaught of menial tasks. This is the killer of creative focus and what prevents me from spending my energies on what matters.

Unfortunately, there’s no cure for distractions. I’m a firm believer of the 80/20 rule and I would venture to guess that 80% of our time is spent on distractions while the other 20% is spent on doing what we really set out to do.

There’s no way to get rid of distractions, so accept that. But there is a way to increase your creative focus.

For me, creative focus is driven by a certain "zone" that I enter, which is fueled by the perfect alignment of certain settings. There are mental requirements for my creative focus, which include mood and confidence, but there are also basic, simple things I can do.

I call them the big three: sleep, stealth mode and peace.

Obviously, sleep is essential. The brain cannot function without having time to organize. Stealth mode occurs when I lock myself out of the world. This usually involves a huge set of Sennheiser headphones and some good music. Peace is the temporary elimination of telephone, email, and people distractions.

As I said, these are basic and simple. But it’s aligning these things that is the hard part. Determine what the three things are that drive your creative focus. Then see if you can arbitrarily align them.