I have borderline Attention Deficit Disorder.
And not so borderline either.
More like I am living in an ADD border town.
I have been fighting it all my life.
In school, college, medical school, on the meditation cushion and everywhere else.
Have I become better at handling distractions?
I haven't noticed.
Which is not a good sign.
The good news is I have become more aware that I am easily distracted and swing from one project to another.
My latest strategy is to give five main goals for five days.
I then track my progress over the next five days.
At the end of five days, I review my performance and based on it, I give myself five goals for the next five days.
Many of the productivity gurus, including Stephen Covey and David Allen, recommend the week as the linchpin of the self-mastery plan but one week is too long for me. I lose my way much before that.
Five days works well for me - I call it the feek.
It also is easier to calculate daily averages for five days or ten days (2 feeks) instead of seven days.
Now I am in the middle of Feek 5 (11 to 15 June) and I can see the improvement since I started this on 21 May.
Just sticking to this program for more than 20 days is a reward in itself.
I write the goals for each feek in my diary and then write the results at the end of the feek. So I can track my progress from the start.
For example, my goals for this feek are:
1. Yoga class (4 classes, 'coz Sunday is a holiday)
2. Write articles for Suite101.com (10 hours)
3. Write 5 posts in this blog
4. Dr. Mani's Mentoring Program (5 hours)
5. Meditation - 10 hours
These are my MAIN goals and there is enough time to do any of the other goals that are required such as replying email, errands, time with family and friends, etc.
One change I have noticed is that I am giving myself fewer and less ambitious goals.
It's working for me.
What works for you?
How do you focus?
