Focus. Part 13

By Everett Bogue.

The image of the cluttered desk is a pack-rat cliche that anyone can visualize. Papers strewn about haphazardly. Simultaneous access to all of your work and also none of it. You're frustrated and unable to get any work done.

If you have stuff all around you, it will always be harder to focus.

This is why it's absolutely essential to cultivate a minimalist workspace if you're going to focus on getting work that is important to you done.

So clear it all away.

Good, now let's get to the heart of the matter.

The reality of the situation is that creating a minimalist workspace for focus starts at the edge of where work and space interact.

In fact, I'd like to argue that you don't even need a desk to be able to focus. I haven't owned a desk for over a year!

Common knowledge specifies that if you're going to do any work, it needs to be at a desk. I say no, you can focus on your work anywhere in the world.

Anywhere you go, you need to have the tools to control your environment in order to focus on the essential.

For the last year I've worked in coffee shops, trains, airplanes, bars, fields, forests, and yes, even at the beach. A minimalist workspace can be manifested within seconds anywhere that you are in the world.

Here are the keys that you need to create a minimalist workspace for focus.

1. use fewer tools.

We tend to accumulate countless tools for our work. We think we can't work unless we have a printer/fax/scanner in front of us, even if we've printed or faxed very little for years.

Instead, reduce your workspace to as few tools as possible.

Most people can get their work done with a laptop, or even a piece of paper and a pen. Most of us have so much that we never get much of anything done. Reduce your tools to the minimum needed to get your work done.

Ideally you want these tools to be portable, so you can take your workspace anywhere you need to focus.

2. use the simplest tools.

We continue to feel the pressure to have the most advanced tools for the job. This leads to a cluttered workspace filled with the latest gadgets, regardless of whether or not they're actually being used to get our work done.

When I was a photographer, I used to feel inadequate unless I was constantly updating my hardware. Then one day I realized that the best camera you can ever have is the one you have on you.

The technology doesn't create the artist, the artist uses the technology. No expensive tool will change this fact.

In almost all cases you already have the tools you have to focus. Choose the simplest tools, and you'll be far more effective at focusing on the work you need to do. For example, a writer only needs a text editor in order to get work done.

3. forget about 'just in case'

We like to keep things around in our workspace for 'just in case.'

'Just in case' is a place in the space time continuum that invokes clutter, but not much else that's useful. We tend to throw stuff into our drawers than we might need someday, but we have no idea when we'll need it.

If you don't need something now, or have no concrete plans to use it in the future, chances are you won't need it. Don't keep things in your workspace just in case, don't buy things just in case.

The future is a mystery, let it remain that way.

The tools you need to overcome future challenges are probably the ones you're using right now.

4. unplug.

We're constantly connected, which means there are literally billions of distractions at our fingertips.

The Internet is a relatively new development in the evolution of the human race. We didn't exactly evolve to simultaneously work and check Twitter at the same time. Single-tasking is a must, and the easiest way to do this is to unplug.

Turn off your WiFi, unplug your Internet connection, or go to a place that doesn't have Internet.

5. breathe.

Wherever you've decided to put your minimalist workspace. Whether it's a clean desk by a window, or the crowded coffee shop that I'm working in right now in San Francisco, it's important to breathe.

Breathing is so important to focus, because it brings you into the present moment. A breath will never happen before or after you take it. So when you focus on your breath, you will be drawn into the present moment.

Take a moment before you step into your minimalist workspace to take a few slow deep breaths. This will bring focus to the work you're about to do.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

This will help you naturally focus on your minimalist workspace, and then you'll be able to get your work done.

Everett Bogue writes about minimalism on his blog, Far Beyond the Stars (http://www.farbeyondthestars.com).

3: how to take a digital sabbatical.

By Gwen Bell.

The words we use matter. Regardless of the length of the statement, and whether delivered in person or digitally, words matter. We must be vigilant because we have a responsibility -- not just to those we're sure will hear what we say directly. We're responsible to anyone who may experience the ripple. It may be years before we know the full impact of the words we share online.

In the immediate future, being plugged in and unfocused causes us to make small errors that result in big losses. We say things we don't mean. We do things without thinking. We send an email we wish we could unsend.

When our actions are aligned with what's happening within us, we don't need an unsend button. A Digital Sabbatical gives us an opportunity to observe our addictions, practice with what's arising moment to moment and decide what matters. A Digital Sabbatical helps us discover alignment with purpose.

My decision to take a Digital Sabbatical came when I was on a bus ride, mindlessly flipping between applications on my phone. Killing time between stops, it occurred to me I was justifying the hours I spent with my device, and online, as "part of the job." I told myself if I wasn't always on I might miss something. That moment, I knew it was time for a hard reset. I wanted a better intention online than, "I don't want to miss something." It was time for a Digital Sabbatical.

What's a Digital Sabbatical? It means to engage with the Web less frequently, and with intention when you are online. To prepare for a Digital Sabbatical, begin with elimination: Eliminate insecurity work. Turn off alerts. Stop running searches every few hours on your projects to see who mentioned you.

Eliminate non-client related meetings.

Eliminate responsiveness; instead practice being reflective.

Remove non-essential apps from your phone.

Engage in Noble Silence once a day (eliminate noise/conversation).

You will miss things. Unplugged or not, you're missing something. Unplugging gives you perspective to decide what you don't want to miss. Focus, by definition, means you choose one thing over another. You give your attention completely to the task at hand, not worrying that you're missing something.

When you're ready to commit to focus as a lifestyle change, here's how to take a Digital Sabbatical.

Auto-respond / post. Set your blog to post every Monday while you're away. Auto-respond to emails with a message explaining how you can be reached (in my case, I offered my physical address and hand-wrote letters in response to the ones I received).

Create Community of one. Practice being alone. If you're out of practice, watch How to Be Alone.

Create Down Time. Build down time into your schedule. Put it on the calendar. Don't budge in your commitment to read a book start to finish. (ReadMore can keep you focused while reading.) Elicit Support. Eliciting support means asking for help well in advance of falling out of the saddle. A best friend, a family member. Both. Ask for the help to stay off the Web during your sabbatical. (Although they may offer to join you, it's best they don't unplug at the same time.) Forgo Feedback. Don't expect everyone in your life to be thrilled with your unplugging. Don't expect feedback unless you ask for it directly. Touch base with yourself by sitting. (See "Sit" below.) Log It. For someone addicted to the Web, suddenly dropping off can feel lonesome. Keep a log (whether of a full week of 168 hours or just the first day or two) and allow calm to replace panic.

Search Limit. Limit the number of searches you do each day. Go deeper than first page of search results when you do search. Consider giving up search altogether for a week or month asking an expert on the topic instead of consulting a search engine.

Set the Container. What's absolutely off limits? Name it. Write it down. Put this container in front of yourself, near your devices.

Sit. I'm a minimalist. Still, there's one purchase I suggest you make before embarking on your sabbatical: a zafu. Sit daily, even if just for ten minutes.

Take stock of your digital life. Which sites do you use to kill time? Is life long enough to spend it killing your time? Which applications are you using as a crutch? Which sites cause you pain to think about updating when you get back online?

To create spaces of focus and productivity in the (digital) world, we have to first be tender and intimate with ourselves. We have to cultivate spaces of retreat within ourselves, and extend from there. We have to observe our addictions with a tender heart. We have to cultivate awareness by sitting and observing ourselves. We have to consider the ripples we're sending into the world with our words and deeds.

Cultivate space for yourself in the world. Practice mindfulness. Retreat. Study yourself. Not just for yourself, for your community. For the people you serve. Unplugging gives you an opportunity to miss the work you do. Missing is good, it creates a desire to connect at a focused, heart level.

Unplug. Take a Digital Sabbatical.

When you return to the Web you'll do so with complete presence. To be present online, we have to be fully ourselves offline.

Gwen Bell is a social media entrepreneur who owns a yoga studio in Japan and blogs at GwenBell.com.

4: life lessons from tea rituals.

By Jesse Jacobs.

There has been a lot of press lately about the overflow of information and the addictive pull of "new" data that enters our lives. Some of it is work related, but most of it isn't. Email, text, news, tweets, blogs, snail mail, TV, movies, newspapers, books, "Friends," and family and on and on. It's amazing we have time for eating and sleeping.

Without question, the technology, information, and tools that exist today have the opportunity to make our lives rich, deeply connected, and rewarding. But this stuff also has the opportunity to pull us way down into a frenzied pace of constantly checking and updating and "consuming."

Being an entrepreneur, and having the fortune to work in the tea industry, I have had the rare chance to both be immersed in the demands of information overflow and yet to build my business around creating islands of escape from that constant stream of data and responsibility. As a society, we are slowly becoming aware of the desperate need for tools that allow us to survive, and thrive, amidst the whirlpool of stuff that comes at us at an ever increasing pace. The tea leaves have taught me much, and I would like to share my lessons with you.

why rituals.

I have found that rituals are sorely lacking from modern life. Traditionally, society was rich with rituals: naming ceremonies, weddings, religious holidays, etc. Today, as organized religion has less appeal to the modernized masses, and people lack time to create the space for rituals, they are virtually gone. Work has become the new ritual. Checking who's updated our Wall before bed has become a ritual. And yet rituals are so valuable because they create markers in life - of big events and little, of the basic flow and rhythm of our time here on earth. I have looked to re-incorporating rituals into my life as a way to slow down, get present, and connect deeper with myself and with others.

ok - so why tea?

Chapter end