Given the prevalence of short form brain rot solely with the intent to hijack attention just for the sake of revenue generation, it’s important to note that a long attention span is very necessary to indulge in meaningful work.
Personally, I found out that a long attention span may just span hours on the stretch to achieve a goal, or the aggregation of short time frames to achieve a goal. In this blog, I intend to bring to light the method that I use to combat a short attention span in order to get work done. I will try to make it super short by describing my method and, based on the results I have noticed over time, document why this approach works.
The Method: Goal-Oriented Time Boxing
First of all, I make a checkbox-list of all the (work related) goals I want to achieve for the day, make a sub-checklist of tasks that would help me ultimately achieve that goal, arrange them in order of relevance (Very Important and Important), and then assign each of them time limits (30 minutes) that I call sprints.
When I am into the session, I place in the checklists intermittently—i.e., perform a Very Important subtask sprint, proceed to an Important subtask sprint, then repeat the process until I rest. Similar to the Pomodoro technique, I take rests after about 6-8 sessions (3-4 hours) for a minimum of 30 minutes and at most 1 hour. Within that rest period, I go through my TO-DO list, check the subtasks that I need to continue, and then go ahead with them after resting.
Results Observed
Over time, I noticed that this enabled me to focus on important things (ordered by virtue of being Very Important or Important) longer than I used to, whilst simultaneously switching context (moving from Very Important subtasks to Important subtasks and vice versa) to compensate for the ADHD factor.
The key to making the compounding effect of this method work is CONSISTENCY.
Why This Approach Works
- It’s scalable: After each session, if I find out that I needed more time, I simply add 10 more minutes to the next sprint for that particular goal.
- I focus on what matters (Very Important <-> Important hierarchy).
- Compounding effects of consistent practice.