You were about to start. Then You Didn't. Because You Can't Focus When Starting Work

Noticing

You can notice the pattern and still be inside it.

Can’t focus when starting work?

You sit down to work.

Everything’s ready. You’re about to start and something pops up. it’s not outside, it’s just something in your head. Something you could do later, but you don’t leave it. You check it first.

You notice it.

You start the task. An email pops in. oh, here we go. You see it, and you also see yourself follow it. Your fingers leave the keyboard and a second later you’re holding your phone. You’re in your bank app. The work is still open on your screen.

You go back.

Then it happens again. You get up to make a quick coffee and end up doing something else in the kitchen. You kind of catch yourself there. Your hand is clutching a bottle of Cif.

Back to the screen.

There are other small things. The post arrives, a rattle and noise. Each time it’s just a slight shift. You can see it happening, how easily your attention leaves what you were doing.

Even when when the room is completely quiet, it’s still there. A thought, it's telling you to “stop” or “do something else”. You follow it without really deciding to.

By lunch you’ve been in and out all morning.

After lunch you sit down again. It’s still there, not really stronger, just familiar. You’re opening a spreadsheet, and there’s something booting up alongside it. You can feel it. You notice it, but you keep going.

You look at the clock and think about getting up again. There’s a pull.

You notice it. You can't focus when starting work.

But you carry on.

Most of the time you wouldn’t even call this a problem. You forget about it. It comes and goes.

Until you notice you’ve noticed it before.

And even then, nothing really changes. It still shows up in the same places. You still move on.

you can see it and still be in it

this is where you start noticing it

→ Why Does This Keep Happening to Me?