I have a lot of projects that I am working on. Some personal projects, many professional projects.  And the queue of things that I would like to do is pretty overwhelming. And many times those things turn into lists of things that I feel that I SHOULD do.  And I’ll just note that “should” can be a horrible feeling.

Focus is definitely an issue for me. I tend to get distracted quite easily. Even if I am in the middle of something that I want or need to do, my mind will suddenly snap to an unrelated thing and then I am off down various rabbitholes and it can be minutes to days before I get back to the original thing that I was working on.

I have, over the years, tried many things to try and improve my focus. It seems to have very little to do with how interested I am in whatever I am working on. Setting timers doesn’t work. Music or other ambient noise designed to stimulate focus don’t work. And even in the course of the few sentences I’ve got here so far… I’ve done about 6 other side things.  I’m not proud of that, but it’s just the way things work out.

This “easily distracted” thing is a primary reason I don’t like to work hourly. Because I end up having to turn timers on and off and I forget to do that so then I end up having to estimate and it’s a nightmare and I would rather just work flat rate.  That way I don’t need to worry about switching timers on and off, can get distracted and come back to things and continue working and as long as I get the work completed (which I do), everyone is happy.  Is it the most efficient way? Certainly not. But the end result is that I do actually complete things.

I managed to get this post written.. so, you see, I DO actually get things done. But sometimes getting things done is a bit of a journey.