The Need To Defocus

Focus is overrated. There, I said it.

We’re told to zero in, eliminate distractions, and optimize every second. “Deep work” or whatever the latest productivity cult is preaching. But constant focus? It’s not a superpower. It’s a CAGE.

Your best ideas don’t show up when you’re grinding away, when you're trying to force a solution. They hit you in the shower, while driving, or - yeah - even while picking your nose. That’s because your brain isn’t a machine. It’s a chaotic, unpredictable, brilliant mess that thrives on randomness.

Hyper-focus narrows your thinking. It traps you in the obvious. But strategy, design, storytelling - these don’t reward tunnel vision. They thrive on friction, contradiction, and unexpected collisions of ideas. And you don’t get that by staring harder at a problem. You get it by stepping away.

I’ve learned this the hard way. Hours spent grinding, convinced that brute force would crack the code - only to realize the answer had been waiting for me to stop suffocating it. The best decisions, the boldest moves? They happen when you give your brain room to BREATHE.

So stop trying to optimize every moment. Embrace the blur. DEFOCUS. That’s where the magic happens.