On the surface, it would seem that being focused and being alert to your surroundings are mutually exclusive goals. That is indeed the case if you try to do both at 100% — especially if you are suffering from an attention-zapper like sleep deprivation. One key is to balance the two.
For example, when you’re driving a car through a residential neighborhood, you are focused on the road ahead of you, but you are also aware of the two kids playing in the yard three houses down and the cat sitting by the curb across the street from them. You’re not dividing your attention between the road, those kids, and that cat. However, you would be if you decided to actually watch the kids or the cat. You are just aware of them because they are in the periphery. If one were to dart into the street, your focus would be on the darting kid or cat.
In the same way, you must focus on the task at hand on the job site, but don’t shut out peripheral input — because things might change. With mindful practice, you will reach a balancing point that is ideal for you.
Now imagine you’re driving the same car at the same speed for the same distance on a test track, and it’s the only car. There are no kids or cats here. No intersection coming up, either. You can totally focus on driving that car as there is practically nothing to distract you. So another key principle is to reduce the potential distractions. On the job site, that would include things such as roping off the area so you (theoretically at least) don’t need to be aware of people entering your work space.
Here are some other principles:
- Don’t go it alone. If your task is especially dangerous or requires intense concentration, have a helper or attendant watch the environment for you. Then you can totally focus on the job at hand. The need for intense focus in an environment rife with hazards is one reason electricians typically do not work alone.
- Fill up your reservoir of focus. You do that by such things as getting enough sleep before coming to work and switching mental gears out of issues not related to your task.
- Reduce distractions. Don’t get into conversations while trying to work. Choose one or the other. If you can’t resist answering your phone just because it rings or a text message comes in, then for both your safety and your work quality, you need to leave your phone off or elsewhere.
- Reduce the intensity of focus needed. With adequate job preparation, you will have far less need to figure things out as you do them. A dry run through the job is a proven technique. For example, you need to do a lockout/tagout, so you can replace a motor disconnect that got damaged by a lift truck. Once you’ve worked from the disconnect to the breaker in the drawings, visually “walk through” the drawings backwards from that breaker to double check. Then physically walk down the lockout process before you get your tags and locks.
- Focus in bursts. Have you ever tried reading a book or magazine cover to cover in one sitting? While some people can do that, most of us find our thoughts drifting or we even start to nod off after some time has passed. We might not even be aware of the loss of focus. One way to test yourself is to ask, “What are three things I can remember from the page I just read?” You might be surprised at how easy this is after reading only one page and how hard it is after you just read thirty of them. Pick a reasonable progress point, take a micro break, then go back to the task.
- Alternate your focus. For example, you have to make 800 terminations in a system with four terminal strips per cabinet. After a while, the drawings seem to blur and you forget what goes where because you can’t keep your focus. Try making 10 terminations on Terminal Strip A and then 10 on B, and so on. It may be enough variation that you can focus fully each time.
- Recalibrate concentration. If you find you can’t concentrate, stop. Sometimes we get flustered because something didn’t go right on the job or this is the fifth petty annoyance in the last ten minutes. You’re not a machine; don’t keep pressing on as if you are. Take a short walk, maybe to get a tool you “forgot,” so you can calm down a bit. Don’t stew on whatever annoyed you. Instead, think of something else, such as how smoothly the rest of the job will go — or at least will go once you’re past this part.
