Rethink What Focus Means with Six Perspectives

Focus as lens, ONE thing, portfolio, search space, cornerstone, space-time

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Dall-E & me

When you hear 'focus', what comes up for you?

Maybe:

• The image of a magnifying glass

• Guilt, because you are not focusing

• Determination to focus more

These are just three that come up for me.

For you, these may be different:

• The latest productivity tool

• A prioritization matrix

• A feeling of joy for missing out

It's just one word, one topic, but a myriad of possible perspectives. And each perspective comes as a bundle of thoughts, metaphors, feelings.

The topic is neutral. The perspective is subjective. The perspective, not the topic, shapes our reality.

But you can deliberately change the perspective:

1) By asking yourself open-ended questions like:

• 'What's a different way to look at this?'

• 'How would (insert your role model) approach this?'

• 'How would 80-year-old-me see this?'

2) Conversations with great listeners can also make you rethink your perspective.

3) And of course through reading:

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” George R.R. Martin

In the spirit, of no. 3) let me share with you six angles that may help you rethink focus.

1. Focus is a lens

This is probably the default metaphor many of us have. We know focus from optics: we focus with our eyes, it's what glasses help us with, and a camera zoom or a microscope do an even better job.

But an even better job at what? Yes, we see 'better', e.g. with more detail, what we wanted to look at. But it also helps us blend out, blur or distort what we don't want to look at.

The lens is also a metaphor for using tools to augment our focus.

So, 'focus as a lens' is about zooming in on what interests us and zooming out what doesn't, and potentially doing so with the help of a tool.

2. Focus is ONE thing

This one is simple: what's the one thing?

• What's the one thing to do?

• What's the one thing not to do?

• Who's the one person to talk to? etc.

The best known variation of this question & spirit of 'ONE thing' comes from entrepreneur and author Gary Keller:

"What's the one thing that by doing it, everything else becomes easier?"

I've been asking myself this question lately, and it’s powerful:

• What's the one project that by pushing it, will make my work this week a success?

• What's the one skill that by developing it, will make me a better coach?

• What's the one habit that will boost my energy & health this month?

What's funny: when you start asking this question, you may find 'multiple ONE things', each in a different context (work project, skills, habits) or life area (see 'focus is a portfolio' below).

Focus as 'ONE thing' is about priority (not: priorities) and using the biggest leverage.

3. Focus is a portfolio

When you zoom in or find the 'ONE thing', you typically do so per field, one for work, family, friends, health etc. You end up with a portfolio view of life.

Focus as a portfolio means three things:

• What areas does your portfolio focus on? You can copy e.g. the six ['strategic life areas'](https://hbr.org/2023/12/use-strategic-thinking-to-create-the-life-you-want), but I've found it helpful to create your own categories and wording

• What's your focus within each area? Ask yourself the 'ONE thing' question for each area

• What's the focus of the portfolio as a whole? Does it contribute to an overarching purpose, or is there a principle behind it, like antifragility?

Focus as a portfolio is about the areas you focus on, your focus within each of these and how the portfolio as a whole focuses on a bigger purpose or principle.

4. Focus is a search space

This one has been an eye-opener for me last year:

You can focus on goals or you can focus on search space.

Goal-setting we know. It's pervasive in society and credited for much of our progress. We set goals at work, for our health, relationships etc. Perhaps you've found them constraining, unhelpful, destructive even and have not set goals, at least in some areas.

Search space is the alternative to setting or not setting goals. A term from computer science and mathematics, it's a space of possible solutions that you navigate by following what is interesting and novel. You're not guided by trying to reach a milestone in the distance. Rather, you follow the next step if it's interesting and novel. Every stepping stone spawns new stepping stones, opens up new possibilities that you could not have imagined.

The big discoveries of humanity have followed this process. Scientists working on what intrigued them and what was novel, rather than following a plan, 'discovered' penicillin, post-it notes, the world wide web, and the structure of DNA. Even evolution itself followed this process: human-level intelligence was not an objective but it emerged out of variation, natural selection and emergent complexity in an inherently unpredictable way. Greatness cannot be planned.

You can focus on goals, and that will help you achieve clearly delineated improvements.

Or you focus on search space, pursue what's interesting and novel and end up making unplanned discoveries.

5. Focus as cornerstones

Imagine you stand on a cliff and you look out at the scenery before you. Perhaps you have a camera or binoculars with which you can zoom in and out.

But what allows you to focus in the first place?

What are the unacknowledged enablers of your focus? Here, it's standing on firm ground so you don't fall off the cliff, having a car or bike to get you there and being able to navigate back home.

Focus as cornerstones means looking at enablers and foundations. It's the things to put in place and maintain that allow you to focus elsewhere. It's the non-negotiables.

It's the...

• Healthy eating habits and regular exercise

• Time with family and friends

• Investing money

When you don't have these, you need to focus on them.

But when you have them, they are the cornerstones that allow you to focus elsewhere.

6. Focus in space-time

This one is whacky and a tribute to Albert Einstein.

Focus is often a matter of 'what' to do. But 'what' never goes without 'when'.

In space-time, focus means 'when are you focusing on what?'

• Short-term: your day / week / month / year. When are you doing what today? (ideally, taking your circadian rhythm into account)

• Medium-term: your life phases. When are you doing what in life? What's your focus now vs. when you're 60 years old vs. when you're 90 years old?

• Long: ancestors past & future. What are you doing that links back to your ancestors? What are you doing that makes you a great ancestor?

Six perspectives on focus: which of these is new to you? What other perspectives do you have? Let me know in the comments.

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