H01 · Attention and Compulsion
Deep focus and single-tasking
Protecting undivided attention and focusing completely on the task in front of you.
Cues
Showing 8 of 8 cues
Traction versus distraction
The opposite of distraction is not focus, but traction: traction is any action done with intent that moves you toward what you planned, while distraction pulls you away from your planned intent, often prioritizing the urgent over the important.
“Concentrating hard on something that is important is ... I can’t succeed at all without doing it. I did not succeed in life by intelligence. I succeeded because I have a long attention span.”
Rusticus: read attentively
From his teacher Quintus Junius Rusticus, Marcus learned to read attentively rather than skimming and not to be satisfied with superficial knowledge.
“Desultory reading is delightful, but to be beneficial, our reading must be carefully directed.”
“Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time. We were entrusted by nature with the ownership of this single thing, so fleeting and slippery that anyone who will can oust us from possession.”
“I think when you multi-task so much, you don’t have time to think about anything deeply. You’re giving the world an advantage you shouldn’t do. Practically everybody is drifting into that mistake.”
“Thinking means concentrating on one thing long enough to develop an idea about it.”
“Is the trigger serving me or am I serving the trigger?”