As a developer, sometimes I found myself lost in a big project that also requires to build small projects (that sometimes turn into big as well). It is scary to look back and forth then see how many they are. All I do is try to focus and get everything done.

Being focus is often understood as only do one thing at one given moment. While it’s true, it is not efficient to get a ton of things complete. Either want it or not, you can not always “just get back to focus” after each moment.

I knew I need a “system” that can maximize my focus to work on things. And every good system has this one thing in common, they are adaptable to changes and disasters. In other words, they can scale.

How to create a scalable “focus system”?

Just like any other system, when considering about scalability, we need to know how it normally operates, think about changes and disasters that likely to happens. And based on current circumstances, design a system that can run in those cases.

If you can’t avoid change or disaster, allow it into the system and design how to solve it too.

Adapt to changes

Changes are events that will likely to corrupt your focus under normal circumstance, but easy to restore. For instance, it can be distractions, or just getting tired.

To deal with distractions, I’ll decide whether is it worth the intention, or I need to pass and get back to whatever I was doing. To verify that, it needs to passed these few questions: (1) Does it related to the project? (2) Does it help what I was doing? (3) Would it still matter in (x) year time if I am not doing it now?

Adapt to disasters

Disasters are things that destroy and left the focus system hardly be restored. For example, burn out — it is ugly, demotivated, and sometimes make us question about what we were doing.

Burn out is usually caused by using all the energy you have, and squeeze every last drop of it. Then you are left with a dull mind, and unmotivated to even walk out on the street.

I found that there is no better way to deal with burn out than to prevent it happen. Basically, before running out of energy, I need to drop everything and do something else to fill it back. Like relax, go for a walk, or even a short trip, etc. As soon as the energy level is filled up, I go back, picking things where they were left and continue.

One thing that worth mention is your health, including eating and exercise habit. You’ll be amazed how it affect the performance and how fast it helps to recover after disasters (*).