The hard part is focus. Staying on a single task for multiple hours is basically a superpower in today’s world of interruptions. But even if you can focus, there’s also that moment in-between. Can you switch from one focus to the next? And, once again, actually focus?
Again, the focusing is the hard part. I’m not too good at it these days. I have my moments, and I’m always working on it. But that moment of switching feels connected.
The other day, I had a great, focused morning. But as soon as I started watching some anime during my lunch break, I sort of branched out into distraction. It took me a while to recover and get back to focus. So if focusing is hard, switching from focus to relaxation back to focus is just as hard. That’s why Tony Stubblebine came up with interstitial journaling. The idea is to capture your thoughts when you’re moving from one project to the next throughout your day. To write it out and ease the transition.
This morning, I woke up with some leftover dreams. I quickly made a mental cut so I could get up and start the day. I switched to thinking about my Pokémon collection to test my theory on deliberate context-switching. That transition worked. The next one was harder: Getting from Pokémon back to my morning routine and the day ahead. Aha! So some topics are stickier than others!
For me, a nonfiction book is better context for my lunch break than a TV show. Why? Because those books have natural stopping points where it’s easy to pause and let ideas linger. If a TV episode ends in a cliffhanger—and when do they not—it’s hard to leave that mental train track.
Practice your focus, sure. There’s nothing like spending three, four hours in a concentrated manner. It’s extremely rewarding. But also practice deliberate context-switching. Even when attention is in short supply, the moments when you turn it from one matter to another should be yours and yours alone.
