I am a person who has difficulty focusing on a task for more than 10 minutes.
And believe me, I suffered from this a lot, especially back at the school.
My teachers thought I was lazy, uninterested and even at some points, not smart enough.
I am sure that my art & mathematics teachers were confident that I didn’t have the necessary IQ to be successful. But that was not because I wasn’t smart. That was because I simply wasn’t interested in the way they taught things.
And believe me, I wanted to be focused even more than they wanted me to be focused.
The same issue continued when I entered corporate life in my adult years. Long (and not particularly efficient) hours were not for me. That is why I decided to go my own way and decide on my own hours.
Long story short, when I had the chance to decide on my own working hours, I realized that I am very effective. Especially when I work in small increments and create daily routines.
For example, if I am learning a new skill (say, html coding), instead of spending 2-3 hours in one block of time, I am much more efficient when I divide it into little time blocks.
30 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes in the afternoon, 30 minutes in the evening (and I do some other tasks between them) is a much better way for me.
This way, I do not feel distracted, bored or burned out. When I am at work, I am fully focused and engaged.
Dividing tasks into small time blocks has created wonders for me.
I know that I did not reinvent the wheel by doing that, and I am not the first human being on this planet to ever do that. But sometimes, you have to reinvent the wheel within yourself, and understand what is the best way you can do focused work.
And of course, this is a lifelong journey. We can always do better, improve and work more effectively.
One step at a time.