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Find Your Focus Zone: An Effective New Plan to Defeat Distraction and Overload

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When a friend put this book in my hands a few months ago, I wondered if he was trying to tell me something, and if I should be offended. Find Your Focus Zone: Hadn't I read enough time-management books or self-improvement books already? Now I've read the book -- and passed on a few copies myself -- and I'm signing on here to say that THIS IS NOT YOUR TYPICAL SELF-HELP BOOK.

For one thing, it's really helpful. Really, really helpful. Palladino has a novelist's gift for succinct and memorable character descriptions, which means that her description of the too hyperfast, hyperfocused guy reminded me of someone (several someones) I knew, as did her sketch of the woman who is scattered and spacey, the folks who are overstimulated, understimulated, afraid of failure. I started turning down pages to share with people but stopped partway through. I could tell that nearly everyone I know could benefit from Palladino's clear analysis of what makes us less effective in every part of our lives.

That leads me to another part of Find Your Focus Zone that surprised me: how much I found that Palladino's advice could help me in my family life. Her portraits of parent-child interactions hit home with even more force than did her sketches of workers. Because of her book, I've changed the way I think about my daughter's foot-dragging over homework and music practice. Also how my husband and I work with her and our son on chores, how we think about our family meals, our vacations, our dreams for them. Little stuff and big stuff.

If you wonder about the effect of the new connectivity toys and tools on children, read this book. If you wish work didn't intrude on your family life but find it hard to leave it at the office, read this book. If you wish you could just Get More Done, read this book. If you feel like there's more in you than your work is getting out, read this book. If you're a manager or business owner, read this book. If you're just starting out in a job, read this book.

Best of all, it's not just easy to read and well-written. It's clear that Palladino knows her science. She trusts the intelligence of her readers when she describes current research in attention and attention disorders. It's a pleasure to read a book with clear footnotes that also has practical end-of-chapter suggestions.

So if someone gives you this book, thank them. And then buy another to pass on.

I've spent about 15 years reading books and articles about this subject, and this is the first time I've actually experienced an immediate and tangible shift in focus. That's pretty close to miraculous, especially since I've even been an editor or contributor to some books on the subject.

See, I have a very very busy mind. I'm a marketing director for a Boston high-tech company (fast-moving group in a rapidly changing environment with constantly large amounts to learn), I sing in a championship men's chorus which requires a substantial commitment, I'm in an a capella quartet (ditto), I'm Class Notes secretary for my college class, and just for fun last year I discovered a very advanced life-threatening cancer, learned an enormous amount fast (as if my life depended on it) and completely beat it, while being stuck with two houses because we'd moved at the start of the housing slump. Now that the house and cancer are resolved, I'm a team leader in a year-long self-development course, I've become an active blogger, and I've published my year-long cancer journal and I'm becoming active in the "e-patient" movement to promote a new kind of doctor-patient relationship for the internet-enabled, whose principles played a big role in my cancer success last year.

I mean, I love my life, but with a life like that, who has time to stop and "go to school" about focusing?

I'll never forget the first time management course I took, decades ago. It said you just make a list and mark everything A,B,C for priority and then do the most important stuff. I wanted to reach out and SLAP the author, saying "You idiot, if I could do THAT, I wouldn't need this course!"

Where most books spend chapters being philosophical about why their solution WILL be useful later in the book, Find Your Focus Zone immediately gets to the point, delivering solutions in the very first chapter. Sure, it deepens your understanding later on, but the punchline, the payoff, is delivered right away.

I experienced it like a caffeine jolt of understanding and awareness. It's about finding the level of stimulation that works for you (which isn't as easy as it might sound). The funny thing is that I read it months ago and didn't think much about it since then, but then the other night in the middle of a marathon of productivity, I realized I was *doing* it, and it was working. I was moving from task to task with grace and ease, just gettin' stuff done.

Frankly, I've always had a hard time with the idea that with all the ways I experience and contribute and enjoy life, somehow I shouldn't be the way I am. I mean, I have more fun and I experience more stimulation than two or three ordinary people. This book doesn't say for a minute that you've got to learn to be different - it says "Here's this one massively useful knob you can control about your environment, to get more stuff done while being exactly the way you are." How cool is that?

HELP FOR MY SCATTERED BRAIN!
I like this book. Tips and strategies for staying engaged with boring tasks, as well as practical methods for dealing with anxiety, pressure to perform, and fear of failure. It teaches the art of finding and maintaining a state of productive focus. It provides tools to call yourself to attention so you can visit that wonderful place where "all systems are go" and you are humming along. You don't have to be a scientist to appreciate the clear explanation of the upside down U that graphs the relationship between attention and stimulation. Even the Brain Chemical Attention Chart, showing the relationship of serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine to attention, is clear and understandable. The book is easy to read, user friendly, and contains lots of practical advice. I had no problem staying in my "focus zone" as I read.

"What are you not doing right now?"

Find Your Focus Zone will help you get back on track and answer that critical question. Now more than ever, social media, e.g., YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, your PDA, iPhone or your Crackberry is vying for your attention. Do these applications and devices deserve it, or are you negating your work at hand? As a culture we are all experiencing information and cognitive overload-- like that Bing Search Overload commercial on TV, but author Lucy Jo Palladino offers many solutions and/or "keychains" as she labels them to keep us on task and in our Focus Zone. Through the proper balance of stimulation and learning to regulate this balance you will begin to "flow" once again and regain your focus. Attention is power and all creative endeavors require it. Learn the techniques of mindful multitasking, thought substitution, mental rehearsal like professional athletes and finish the task or reach that goal. Learn to block out distraction once and for all.
I'll leave you with this one study conducted by the University of California, Irvine: it was reported that employees spent an average of eleven minutes working on a project before they were interrupted and had to shift to another task. It then took them an average of twenty-five minutes to get back to their original task... could this be you?
Do yourself a favor and buy this book... deadbolt for office door sold separately.
Highly recommend!

she has Chapter 1 on her site as well; Google "Lucy Jo Palladino" and it'll come right up.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Part I: Understanding Your Focus Zone
1. What Is Your Focus Zone?
2. Bored, Hyper, or Both
3. Attention in the Digital Age
4. What Are We Doing to Our Brains?

Part II: The Eight Keychains
5. Emotional Skills: Keychains 1 & 2
6. Confronting Fear and All Its Cousins: Keychains 3, 4 & 5
7. Mental Skills: Keychain 6
8. Structure Without Pressure: Keychain 7
9. Behavior Skills: Keychain 8

Part III: Digital-age Strategies for Success
10. Outsmarting Interruption and Overload
11. Defeating Distraction in the 21st Century
12. What If You (or Your Children) Have Attention Deficit Disorder?

Part IV: Your Focus Zone As a Way of Life
13. Teaching Kids to Pay Attention
14. The Power of Attention

Appendix - The Eight Keychains: A Quick Guide

Resources

Index

Most self-help books are quite good at describing the problem and / or the causes of the problem but the solution part of the book is usually weak and ineffective. Not this one.
It's far from being perfect and it actually could have been shorter. Part III on the Digital-Age strategies for success is too vague and generalistic to be of much use. Part IV suffers from the same weakness.
However part I is a really good introduction and part II is why you should buy this book. It deals with the eight keychains and even if only one of those eight works for you then it would have been more than worth your time, effort and the ridiculously small price you paid for the book.
The reason why the keychains are effective is probably because they are easy to understand and more importantly to implement. No need to do countless exercises although you should probably re-read the book and maybe take a few notes and decide which keychain(s) you should try and use first (this is what I am doing).
This book might not change your life but it will improve it ... a lot so do yourself a favour and buy it.
Oh by the way thanks Dr Palladino

For the first time, I have been reading for an hour without getting distracted! I was thirsty as well as a bit hungry but they didn't stop me from reading on. The information on this book reveals why we lack focus, procrastinate, and overdrive. The three examples on the second chapter explains the scenario we play out most of the time. This book has helped me faster than any other book. Thanks you for your helpful research.

Fantastic, comprehensive compilation of ideas & methods to "Defeat Distraction & Overload". Instantly attainable skills & methods to deal with a high pressured life on a daily basis.
More Please !!!

As a medical student I felt I had a grasp on time management and attention skills, and then I read Find Your Focus Zone. I had no idea how much this book would change my life for the better. It's a must read for all high functioning people who want to reach their fullest potential. Thank you, Dr. Palladino, for writing such a cutting edge, powerful and useful guide for making the most of each moment of precious time.

This book is a page-turner from chapter one.
Ms. Palladino has several 'Keys' that one can use to find one's focus.
The keys that helped me get back on track were/are:
"What are you not doing now?" ~ a good attention getter
"Thought Substitution/Replacement" ~ like reverse psychology, you tell yourself the opposite of what you are thinking (turning a negative into a positive) by thinking positive thoughts
"Your Observer Self" ~ looking at your situation or problem through the eyes of a neutral observer, only that observer is you.

A great book. Good information on setting and focusing on making goals, tackling ADD and use of medication.

There is too much in this book to cover in a review. I highly recommend you get this book! This book can lead you into the 'zone.'