Let’s face it, we all are busy with our lives between school, work, family, email, twitter and Youtube. Whatever the distraction is, they are not going away! As a matter of fact, distractions are going to increase for many of us. So, what can you do about it?
In a recent read (Deep Work, by Cal Newport) psychologist Carl Jung came up with a philosophy he termed Bimodal. Simply put, this is when you take the time to separate your deep work, like golf development, school work, or business from the rest of your distracted life and focus on this with a high sense of urgency or “individually” with NO distractions. The goal is to be present and highly focused on the tasks or job. This means, NO distraction from music, videos, phone calls, cell phones being near you. For many this type of focus can only last for 10-30 minutes at a time. Suggestion, when you have something to do, block off your time in 20-minute intervals and get it done! School work, close the door, turn off music, your phone or TV and get it done! In golf development time, when you are really focusing on the quality of movements, or a skill, go in bay or go away from others and focus on it or if you are with others, let them know you do not want to be disturbed while working, as they should want the same thing. High achievers have mastered their ability to understand this need of singular focus, to divide and conquer.
The other side of this bimodal philosophy shows that working in distracted or shallow focus can be a fantastic way to learn. It keeps your thoughts from getting too deep and restricting, a good example of this is in a golf practice, there are multiple things happening but there is workflow. When people around you are doing or working on similar things, this allows for shallow focus and great coworking that brings about more learning and discovery. For those who have attention disorders, this can be a great way to get a lot of work done. If you struggle with time management or dependency of noise, then you may find yourself gravitating towards this type of practice. However this may only go so far, if you are trying to become great at something, it will require deep practice with no distractions at times.
We are in a world of distractions and that is not going to change, therefore you will need to learn high performance habits to allow for your greatness to come to the surface. Begin with blocking off 10 minutes of no distraction time, see how effective that is for you and slowly increase the time. I know you will be amazed at how much you get done and how much better you will feel about getting your work done, this will give you an appetite for more! If you have ever gone out and played golf or practiced by yourself, everything just seems to be so easy, and how quickly you fall into a flow state. This is an example of bimodal practice, you are separated by all distractions and your brain gets focused on what you are doing as it is not distracted by judgment or fear of failure. It is a great way to practice! Any questions or if I can help you understand more, do not hesitate to ask!
Enjoy your Journey!
