Why is it so hard to focus? It’s every writer’s complaint.

So there I was, sitting in my local coffee spot, sipping my Americano and mulling the question at hand:

What should my livestreamed talk be about this week?

—when my focus was upended by a conversation at a nearby table.

Reader, I eavesdropped. An intent young man was sharing his hopes and dreams with a patient young lady, who nodded in time to his drumbeat of earnestness.

He listed one ambition, then another, and then two more (you can find out what they were here).

Flushed with feeling and caffeine, he concluded, “That’s it! I’m just going to focus on these four things. Oh, and my music, too!”

That’s five things, but never mind. I knew at once that my topic would be focus. It’s every writer’s complaint.

• How hard it can be to maneuver ourselves into work mode to start with.

• How easily we get distracted.

• How frustrating it is to finally buckle ourselves into the writing chair, only to tinker aimlessly with our work-in-progress because we can’t decide exactly what we should be working on.

And how many of us fall into the same trap as my earnest young coffee-drinking friend, juggling All The Things and then wondering why our progress is next to nil?

It’s not just you. Focus is tricky. It might not mean exactly what you think it means!

In this livestream I talk about focus, and not in the usual turn-off-your-notifications way. What is focus? Is it something we have, or something we do, or something else entirely?

That’s what this week’s talk is all about.

Is focus a struggle for you? Leave a comment below and share your experience.