Premeditated Focus

During these past weeks, I have started to work on a project I call “Reconnaissance d’Uku”. It is simply a presentation of my time in the army to my French peers. I think that it could be useful since there is a lot to cover. This project itself is not today’s topic. The topic of this post, as can be guessed from the title, is focus.

I write weekly blog posts. Usually, I do these in one sitting which is very achievable, since they are not long. Upon tackling “Reconnaissance d’Uku” I soon realised that my focus was all over the place. I have not worked on any project of such magnitude in the past year. There are multiple chapters, there are illustrations to be made, and there is quite a bit of text to write.

Since I noticed the lack of focus I decided to take extra measures. Listening and reading books is one of them. That’s how I finished ”Die With Zero” which is also this week’s suggestion! During the weekend I also took up physical reading and let me tell you it is hard. My focus is very scattered. That is why I am considering to take up meditation again.

During my military service, I have learned to better “eat the frog” and push through difficult moments. I have also learned to gather myself and find focus in truly challenging conditions. That being said, this focus is momentarily and not as continuous as in academia. In the army, you focus, make the plan and from there on you can turn into autopilot (not completely of course).

I will let you know how my quest for focus goes. That being said, looking at the calendar I can predict quite a bit of sleep deprivation in the upcoming weeks. We will be having our last big training exercise called the Spring Storm. The lack of sleep is already a big no-no for focus. To create sustainable focus and thus performance we need good sleep.

I am conscious that I will not be able to truly get back into academic focus before returning to academia in the upcoming fall. There is a whole summer in between. That being said, taking some baby steps helps create a platform to build upon in the future. It's all about those tiny gains that James Clear loves to talk about!

This Week's Suggestions:

📖 "Die With Zero" by Bill Perkins:

This book was a direct suggestion from my brother. I started listening to it on Audible a while ago but did not get past the halfway point for a while. During the past week, I put myself to it and listened to it fully. I was truly inspired by the whole text and thus my rating for the book was 5/5. The book questions how much we should save money and how much we should spend money to maximise life as a whole! Here are Ali Abdaal's highlights and summary of the book.

🎶 "Absoluutselt" by Hannaliisa Uusma:

Tartu's student days started this weekend! On Friday I went to the Students’ Night Song Festival, which was fabulous. On the way there we were already listening to Estonian classics and we happened upon this gem. It is an absolute tune!

Have a sunny Monday!