Distracted

It was the 24th February 2020 according to my calendar. It was also the first day of the Tibetan Year of the Rat in the year 2147 in the Tibetan calendar. And it was my first day back at the desk after a long time away with travel and then a little annual leave.

It was time to implement my New Year’s Resolution. 

Let me copy what I penned in my journal that day as I devoutly started the semester with a mini-retreat.

“An eagle soars high above, its beady eyes scanning the landscape beneath. It takes in everything yet is distracted by nothing. Its purpose is clear. Food.

“Once it spots its prey, it zooms in, feet down, claws outstretched, and grabs it. 

“Violent, that picture is, but helpful as I think about my attitude to life. This year, with God’s help, I will be more like a soaring eagle and less like a playful puppy.” 

Actually, my ‘official’ New Year’s Resolution is less vivid but it’s along the same lines. My resolution is to put in solid blocks of time at my desk each day. 

Today’s Priority

Today is Saturday. It’s my chance to catch up with domesticity. I jot a list of tasks I would like to achieve before the day is out. My top priority today, however, is to write. To write this blog post, in particular. I write because it sharpens my focus. I write because I sense that God has asked that of me. And if you find it helpful to read along, that’s nice. 

First, though, I put on a load of laundry. Then I sit on the bed and read a chapter of my ‘Qualitative Analysis’ book for college, because the cat doesn’t like the washing machine and I like to think that she appreciates my presence as she quakes at the spin cycle. Then I hang out the washing and think about cutting the grass. No … I don’t want the clean clothes to get grassy … the grass can wait until this evening. I clean out one shelf of the pantry, as planned, but then go on to a second because it was there. I’m almost out of eggs and coconut oil. And toilet paper. Perhaps I will walk to the shops and get some exercise … later. Right now, I must FOCUS. 

I switch on the computer. Oh look – new emails. In response to one, I rework a rather important document … several times over, actually. In response to another, I message a friend, and then we chat for a while. By now, the day is slipping by. If I am going to walk to the shops, I had best go now.

After a lovely walk, I come home with eggs, coconut oil, a locally grown zucchini and pesto. There is still no toilet paper to be bought for love or money because panic has made some people in Australia act strangely. 

And now … FOCUS.  

Though my freshly washed clothes are dry now. And then I could cut the grass.

Biblical Insights?

I move away from the computer and any other distracting gadget in order to brainstorm the outline for this blog post. Is it ridiculous, I wonder, to ask if the Bible has any advice about how to focus? After all, to separate secular and spiritual is just a modern idea (post-Enlightenment) and not particularly Biblical. 

A line of Scripture from a song springs to mind: “Give me a totally undivided heart….”  What is that song? What Psalm is it from? I dare not switch on a gadget to use the Bible concordance or to find the song, because I just KNOW that I will get distracted.

(PS The verse about having ‘an undivided heart’ comes from Psalm 86:11, and the prayer is that God will ‘unite our hearts’ so that we may fear his name. I had been meditating on that the day that I wrote the opening section of this post about a soaring eagle. The song I am humming is called ‘Purify my heart,’ by Eugene Greco.) 

I think it is okay to ask God to help me focus not only on him, but also on the work to which he has called me. It doesn’t mean that other necessary and valuable tasks don’t get done. But it does mean that I focus … with his help.

Strategies

There are a few strategies that help me as I struggle to focus. They are (1) mind management, (2) the pomodoro technique and (3) temptation identification. 

Managing our minds is something that the Bible exhorts us to do over and over, though it’s normally in the context of meditating on God and his word. I have written on this before. Surely the discipline of mind management plays into my current dilemma of being distracted by good and necessary but lower priority tasks and opportunities.

The pomodoro technique is something that I picked up through an online writing class I took a couple of years ago. In short, you take a timer, set it for 25 minutes, and then start writing, ready or not. The Italian man who copyrighted the concept, a university student struggling to focus, had an oven timer shaped like a tomato. ‘Pomodoro’ is Italian for ‘tomato’. Yes, it’s that simple. 

Temptation come in many forms. Had I had my computer, phone or iPad at hand when I started to draft this article, I would have used it to look up the lyrics to that song or the Psalm I referred to earlier. However, the chances are that I once I got online, I would have also checked the news headlines, glanced at social media, checked emails and seen then paid my gas bill. These things are not temptations in and of themselves. The temptation is simply that I do not focus on what needs to be priority right then and there. That’s why I chose to move away from my gadgets and use good old-fashioned paper for a first draft. 

I implemented these three strategies, despite the grass still being long, the clothes ready to bring inside and the desire to cook banana muffins titillating the edge of my consciousness. And what do you know? It’s still Saturday and this post is written! 

A Day at a Time

It’s been 13 days since I implemented my New Year’s Resolution. So far, it’s actually gone quite well, delightful distractions notwithstanding. But it’s not easy. It’s a day-by-day, sometimes moment-by-moment, effort. 

I want to be like that eagle, keeping everything in view but with my focus clear. Unlike that eagle, however, I don’t want to swoop down and catch a poor little defenceless creature in my claws. That’s where the analogy breaks down. I want to stand tall, my head held high, knowing that I have used well the resources of time, energy, gifts and abilities that the Good Lord has allocated to me. May his name be glorified as a result.