#focus advice

Hey everyone, it’s Abby here with another writing post! Today I want to talk about the mystical “zone”. I’m pretty sure we’ve all experienced it at least once, even if it wasn’t with our writing. A lot of the time it’s pretty difficult to get there, but after a lot of practice I want to share some of my knowledge.

What is “the zone”?

Have you ever just sat down to do something and you’re working and wow suddenly three hours has passed but you’ve still got so much more left in you? Congratulations, you’ve experienced the zone! (That’s how I’ll be referring to it for the rest of this post, just FYI.)

That’s how we usually think of it, but the zone isn’t always hours of perfect nonstop work. For example, the first time I really got there was when I was fourteen, testing for my first Dan black belt. It was maybe a ten minute performance in front of what was easily two hundred people, but I was on fire. Everything seemed to move slow and fast all at once; of the hours I had spent perfecting my every movement, this was my peak performance. Every time I’ve performed since I’ve slipped into the zone, so it’s something I’m more of less familiar with.

Maybe one day you sit down to organize something and it all goes by but you’re still in that mindset, so you go around and tidy up some other things. Maybe you’re so focused in on this one thing that interrupting it would be a sin. That’s the zone.

How could the zone help my writing?

The writing zone is an experience that must be treasured. It’s when you have the mood, the atmosphere, the inspiration all at the perfect level to sit down and write whatever you want. If you’re anything like me, this doesn’t happen often, so it may be in your best interest to milk it for everything that it’s worth.

How can I get there?

Sometimes it’s built by habit, other times you can—for lack of better word—stimulate it. The zone you find for yourself is often very particular, so it’s best if you try to focus in a controlled environment. Let’s break it down.

Comfort.

You can’t focus on the task at hand if you’re more worried about how much this chair is hurting your back. Dress in clothes that get you in the mood to do whatever it is you want or need to do, and make sure that wherever you’re working can easily be changed to suit your needs.

Things you might want to take into account might be your work area and temperature. (That may not seem important at first, but once you spend a while in this area it will make a pretty big difference.)

“Provisions.”

As in, food and drink. The idea of being in the zone is that you can work for a while without needing to get up or otherwise disrupt your flow. Make sure you have enough water and food (if you prefer to eat while you work, or just in case). For this I prefer just water, as I usually eat something just before or just after I put all my focus into something.

Mood and Music.

I put these two together because I feel that they affect each other a whole lot. I find it easy to work past an unideal mood if I have the right music to do so; for me personally, it’s hard to work without music at all.

But the way we feel tends to affect how and what we write pretty heavily. I use Spotify for my music and what I listen to is often a mix. About half of the time it’s the playlists I have made for my projects (which I actually thought I would use way more often). When I don’t know what to listen to, these are usually my go-to’s:

Chill Instrumental Beats

Dear Evan Hansen Soundtrack

The Human Condition - Jon Bellion (album)

The Winter Soldier Soundtrack

80′s Smash Hits

Let’s... call that an eclectic music taste, but those are the things that I know work for me. (Right now, at least.) If you have an idea of what you want to write, though, Spotify is still really great. You could just search a single keyword and you’ll get tons of results, usually playlists made by other people. 

There’s a whole section devoted (at least on the desktop version, sometimes on mobile) to playlists for different moods, and I find them immensely helpful. If music is your friend, I think Spotify will be too. (I feel like I should say this isn’t a promo because it’s not but that sounded really promo-y.)

Build a Habit.

Get yourself used to sitting down and writing. The more often you do it, the easier it will be to slip into a state of deep focus on whatever you want to work on. The zone is actually just a really cool name for extending and deepening your focus, and it’s pretty common knowledge at this point that focus is something you can constantly build and improve.

To everyone reading this or trying to scroll past, I’m sorry for any inconvenience the length of this post may have caused. Tumblr is still glitching out apostrophes when I try to insert a “Keep Reading” link.