Do you remember a time in which you really had to focus?  I’m not talking about thinking hard about something, but actually the act of being so intently focused on something that you get tunnel vision and lose track of time.

In my experience as a pilot I have learned there are times in which you have to focus so intently that you lose track of time, aren’t aware of it being really hot or cold in the cockpit, and the object you are focusing on become so seared into your mind that you can see the moment clearly for hours after the fact.

As an attack pilot, missions usually last anywhere from just over an hour to as much as eight to nine hours.  Obviously, it is not possible to maintain an intense level of focus over such a prolonged amount of time.  And so, each pilot has to train himself to quickly “turn on” and “turn off” the ability to intently focus.

For example, prior to landing on the aircraft carrier, each aircraft is orbiting overhead the carrier at a certain altitude awaiting for their “commencing time, or Charlie time”, depending on the type of approach.  As you are waiting for your time to come, other than monitoring, time and fuel, there is not much to do.  However, as soon as your time comes, and you begin your approach, your vision narrows, time slows down, and the act of landing a jet on a tiny ship in the middle of the sea consumes all of your attention – especially if it is at night!

“Who you are, what you think, feel, and do, what you love—is the sum of what you focus on.”  ― Cal Newport, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Accordingly, you have to learn to immediately go from a “resting state” to a state of hyper focus.  Pilots who are not able to achieve this balance between rest and focus are doomed to lead a shorter career than those who do.  There are numerous other examples in other areas such as business, teaching, or parenting – and being able to achieve a high state of focus is a key component of success.  So how do we teach ourselves to focus?

Here are three steps that I have found have helped me increase my ability to focus in any environment:

• Practice being bored –  I know this seems odd.  However, when was the last time your mind really went into a “rest” mode, and was not distracted by social media or web surfing when had a few minutes of downtime?  When we are “bored” and we let our minds wander, we are able to better take in our environment and begin to notice things we would not have noticed before.  This seemingly simple skill is essential to training our brains to “notice” things and enhance our awareness of our environment.
• Work Intently for Twenty Minutes – Practice doing your work in twenty-minute chunks in which you shut out all distractions; close your web browser, or open an app such as “TimeOut” or “Headspace” that close out unwanted web traffic.  Further, during this time, turn off your notifications on your phone and computer and just work.  For some, this may seem hard, but just as lifting weights strengthens our muscles, so does exercising our brains strengthens our ability to focus.
• Intersperse Focused time with Down Time – In this step, we are taking the practice of being bored and then combining it with our time of intense focused work.  This down time can also be viewed as a reward time in which you give yourself ten minutes to check social media sites or web browse.  The key though, is having set blocks of time in which you make the transition between focus and down time.  The Pomodoro technique is one of the easiest ways to  tackle this step.

Focus is key – whether you are landing a jet on an aircraft carrier, or shopping at Trader Joe’s with a two-year old – we just can’t operate as well without it.  As Cal Newport says: “Who you are, what you think, feel, and do, what you love—is the sum of what you focus on.”