Losing focus

I don't know about others but staying focused on any one subject for any period of time, significant or otherwise, is a challenge. Perhaps this is why I have tended to fare well in jobs that allowed me to venture into several different areas or aspects and had a more difficult time with positions that required me to work on only one thing all the time. Indeed, that was one of the larger reasons why I left my last role - I simply did not want to be writing code for eight hours a day with no other responsibilities. That is not to say that I did not enjoy writing code and learning how to make things work better - but I wanted to do much more than just being a code monkey. Needless to say, my current role is far more expansive in terms of responsibilities and I find myself both happier and more productive because my distractions can be set to focus on other things that need to be done.

The same holds true for things that I do on my own time. One only has to see my collection of music currently starred in Spotify to get a feel for my ADD tendencies - it runs the gamut from classical to death metal and everything in between with the exception of country (hey, I do have some standards!) More specifically, in my case, I enjoy writing and have recently been working on several ideas that have been floating around in my head when time allowed. At this moment, I am in the middle of two stories and have another that I'm hesitant to start until I can complete one of the other two. I also tend to jot down poetry as inspiration (and time) hits me and that does not include the book I am working on when I'm not otherwise distracted. And I do all of that as I currently skip through four different books that I'm reading (two history books, a Calvin & Hobbes anthology and some FoxTrot books). And I seem to be able to function rather well whenever I make the switch. I know others who can only do one thing at a time and cannot be distracted from it lest they screw up. For me, if I can't distract myself with something else, I'm likely to screw it up.

I'd sure like to know how that works but, for now, I guess I'll just have to accept that losing focus is the only way for me to stay focused enough to get it completed. To my credit, though, I did finish this blog entry in about 15 minutes. That's probably the outer limits of my focus for today.  :-)