Unlock Flow. Shut Out Distraction.

Let’s be honest: staying focused feels impossible these days. You sit down telling yourself you’re gonna make something meaningful this time, and 20 minutes later, you’re for whatever reason watching a video of someone throwing rocks down a mountain.

Your mind probably skipped the whole paragraph just to read the text in bold, am I wrong?

You’re not lazy or undisciplined. Your brain is simply overwhelmed. We’re constantly fed with information, notifications, pings. We’ve completely lost the ability to focus. But, good news for you, focus is a skill. Once you understand how it works, you’ll start to execute things much faster.

What’s Actually Happening in Your Brain

When you’re trying to focus, the part of your brain doing the hard work is called the prefrontal cortex.

The Prefrontal Cortex: we can see it as the control center for decision-making, planning, and focusing. But it’s got a limited battery. Every time you check your phone, scroll, or switch tasks “just for a second”, you’re draining it.

In addition to that, those tiny distractions leave something behind, called attention residue.

Attention Residue: the “ability” of your brain to stay partially stuck on the last thing you looked at.

This is like trying to dry your laundry outside, when it’s raining.

Why does this keep happening? Blame dopamine. Every time you get a notification your brain releases a tiny reward. Your phone isn’t simply a distraction, it’s made to be chemically addictive.

The “Flow” State

You’ve probably already experienced it: you’re working, completely immersed in your craft, and suddenly you watch the clock. Four hours have passed without you even noticing. That’s called flow.

To get there, a few things have to be in order:

• A clear, well-defined and challenging goal

• No distractions

• Full immersion in one thing

You can’t force your flow state, but you can prep for it. Think of it like fishing: you pick the spot, prepare your gear, cast your line and then you wait. The fish comes to you, not the opposite.

Focus Is a Habit

Many of us think that some people are just naturally focused. They have some weird superpower that helps them work. Not true. Focus is something you can build, like muscles or a habit.

And the best way to build it is with small, simple steps:

• Set a specific time to start deep work

• Work in time blocks (60-90 minutes max)

• Remove your biggest distraction (spoiler: your phone)

• Create a focus trigger — it could be from a specific sound to a specific item.

As with everything in life, the key point isn’t intensity, it’s consistency.
Every single focused work block you do, the better you get at it.

Protect Your Focus

Yep, you read it right. You have to protect your focus, no one else will do it for you. In fact, most of the things around you are programmed for the exact opposite thing: robbing it from you.

So, in order to be able to work deeply, you need to build a system around your focus, to protect it.

A few ideas:

• Use noise-canceling headphones (best one)

• Block distracting websites

• Leave your phone in another room

• Take real breaks, don’t just open your phone when resting

Think of your focus like a garden. In order for it to flourish, you have to water it daily, and cut off the bad branches. Time is the only thing that will tell if you did all the “steps” correctly.

Final Thoughts

As mentioned before, nothing is wrong with your brain. We’re simply living in a world that competes for our attention.

Now you should have a pretty clear understanding of how focus really works, and your best weapons to protect it. It’s your choice from now on.

Every time you choose deep work over futile distractions, you’re adding a brick to the solid house you decided to build when starting this self-improvement journey.

And that’s something you have to be proud of.