Personalities have always been interesting to me. Myers-Briggs and similar profiles are fascinating. I’m pretty sure my mother passed this interest along to me. Some of those assessment tools are more accurate and helpful than others, but they fascinate me nonetheless. One particular aspect of personality I’ve been thinking about lately relates to focus and activity . . .
Some people are created to focus. They can spend countless hours working on, studying, and driving toward a specific goal.
Other people are ADD. I personally think the term “ADD” is sickeningly overused, but for this discussion, we all understand the terminology enough to move on . . . ADD folks can’t stick to a single idea or task for any length of time without taking a break, being distracted by a noise, or whatever rabbit that can be chased.
Over the years, I personally have found that my ability to focus on a task is directly related to the amount of stuff I have to do. For some people, being busy means ADD to the extreme, where you flitter from task to task and never really get anything done.
This is not the way I roll. If I have a lot on my plate, I can focus and knock out task after task . . . especially as deadlines loom. The more I have to do, the more I focus and get things done. In college, I took 19 and 20 quarter-hours a few times, and got the best grades those quarters, with the exception of the 4.0 my last quarter . . .
This year has been hard. I have a ton of little things to do, but very few “real” deadlines. I have had a real hard time focusing. Right now, I need to buckle down and get my brain wrapped back around the Architecture Registration Examination information so I can retake the last section on December 9. I’m having a hard time picking up a book to read, let alone study.
Sometime in the next few days I will probably be starting a job selling wireless phones. It’s not going to make us rich. Probably won’t even keep us from dipping into savings. But it will be productive and get us off unemployment. I’ve been asking myself how I am going to get anything else done if I have to work 40+ hours a week in retail during the Holiday season . . . but to be honest, it will probably be great for me. I’m probably going to get a lot more done. Right now, I feel lazy, and probably am. I’m looking forward to genuine, productive activity, not matter how strange or menial.
How about you? How does workload relate to your ability to focus?
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