![\"focus\"](\"http:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/focus.jpg\")
<\/a>When we assembled for our classroom session later that morning, the instructor explained the psychology of our morning run and what it meant to our careers as soldiers. You have to attend to the task at hand, said the instructor. So instead of slowing and longing to be inside the barracks, we needed to remain focused on the run. You may have guessed by now how this basic-training anecdote ties into our academic lives. It\u2019s hard to stay focused sometimes.<\/p>\nI think of that run from so many years ago quite often. Because it\u2019s a physical and material and embodied reminder of trying to focus and stay focused on the things that matter, whatever those things are that matter to you.<\/p>\n
Many of us are winding down our first week of teaching and getting back into a semester\u2019s groove while others of us are trying to stay focused on specific tasks and objectives, but all of us I would imagine are trying to simply focus.<\/p>\n
Focus can be the center of attention of activity or it can be to pay attention to. I\u2019ve always found that the multiple and competing demands of this job make it easy to lose focus. It\u2019s easy to know what to focus on when there\u2019s a deadline or someone right in front of you, but we have to have focus when we\u2019re not faced with these pressures.<\/p>\n
Admittedly, lately, this is one of my biggest problems, and it stems from a combination of personal and professional factors. So for me, I\u2019m working hard on focus and reminding myself of that run so long ago. I am trying<\/p>\n
- \n
- limit my distractions<\/li>\n
- force myself to start with the hardest (ickiest) task first<\/li>\n
- make reasonable to-do lists so as to not feel overwhelmed and to feel and be successful in a day<\/li>\n
- incorporate more fun things<\/li>\n
- work on being more selective to those things I agree to<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
In each of these, I hope my focus will return or at the very least, I have more focused days than not. These are all small things, but sometimes they can make the most difference.<\/p>\n
And if all else fails, maybe I\u2019ll take up running again!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
17 January 2016 by Lisa Meloncon In the Army, you run a lot. Or at least I did. And to the Army\u2019s credit, they start you running early in basic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195,"href":"https:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions\/195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/womenintechcomm.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}