Hyperfocus: When we’re thinking about a problem, we tune out everything else. This trance-like state often accompanies us when we leave our desks to perform other mundane activities; we can’t concentrate on those activities while we’re hyperfocused on something else, so we rely on unconscious habits. When those habits become disrupted because somebody moved the toothpaste to a new drawer (even if it was six months ago), then we’re comically (in everyone else’s eyes) confused until we can shift our focus to the utterly unnecessary problem at hand and locate said toothbrush.
Filtering: We have so many mental tasks to perform every day that we often ignore issues that seem unworthy of our attention. It might be something that we consider trivial, or that we have mentally stamped “handled.” Other people can get pretty angry over their inability to distinguish between these two reasons for our filtering. When I don’t remember what time my wife is leaving to take our child to the doctor, she may think that I don’t care about his condition; I do, but since that task has been delegated to her, I don’t let its details consume my precious CPU cycles.
While it’s often inconvenient for our loved ones and even sometimes for ourselves, absentmindedness has its benefits. Besides enabling us to concentrate deeply on technical problems, it also keeps us from overloading our brains with mundane details. For instance, I didn’t see the gorilla in the video, did you? Now that I’ve pointed it out, you won’t miss it again — but it’s also a lot harder to concentrate on counting the passes now.
Get focused by asking “big picture” questions
IT consulting is not all about solving technical problems — people and business issues frequently require our attention. Lots of gorillas cross our field of vision, and if we don’t notice them and give them a banana, they’re likely to get vicious. We need to respond quickly to our clients and to new opportunities and vulnerabilities, and we need to be sensitive to people’s feelings (which control their business decisions more than they realize).
To be successful as a consultant requires a hybrid between the hyperfocus of the geek and the “big picture” thinking of the business owner. It may not be possible to do both at the same time, so I advise setting aside some time each day to ask yourself a few “big picture” questions:
- What’s important to each of my clients right now?
- How is my business plan working out?
- I missing any opportunities?
- S about to bite me in the you-know-what?
- What else am I forgetting?
Stay organized with SOPs, apps, and software
The “big picture” questions could easily consume all of your time, so again, you need to lean on habitual behavior to enable your “zone” periods. Besides setting aside time for the global view, a number of other standard operating procedures (SOPs) can help you stay organized with less thought required. Here are three SOPs that have been helpful to me:
- Put reminders on a calendar, and give the reminder enough lead time but not too much (so you don’t forget it again after the reminder).
- Keep a task list with everything you need to remember to do.
- Every day, make a daily task list. This not only forces you to review your overall task list, but it also tells you what you need to focus on today.