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In this lesson, we’ll talk about breaking our writing (or other creative work) into small chunks of 5-10 minutes, to lower the resistance and allow ourselves to focus.
To be honest, I don’t have amazing focus as a writer — I get as distracted as anyone else. I’ve learned to do my writing in small chunks. I just need to focus for 5-10 minutes at a time. I might end up doing 15-20 minutes if I’m really into it, but often it’s just 5-10 minutes.
This relieves the pressure to stay focused. I take a break, walk around, check my favorite distractions, do a small task or two, and then come back to the writing task to focus a little more.
Breaking the work into small chunks is incredibly useful. Allow your mind to take a break from the focus, and then come back. Sketch for 5 minutes so, then get up and stretch, do some yoga poses, maybe some pushups, and focus for another 5 minutes. You can do 20-30 minutes of sketching this way, but breaking it into 5-minute chunks.
Now, if you are able to stay focused for longer — that’s amazing! Allow yourself to lose yourself in a task, if you’re able to.
But for those of us who have difficulty focusing for that long, and procrastinate because it seems like such a large task … chunk your larger task into 5-minute bursts so it’s more doable. Reduce the burden of the task to something small, just a quick task, that your mind will allow you to do.
Exercise
Try focusing on just one small 5-minute chunk each day. Then try two 5-minute chunks if you’re able to do that for a few days. Then maybe even try 3 small chunks! Discuss this idea in Slack.