Meditation – Concentration and the ability to focus

I have been looking into meditation to improve my ability to focus and to concentrate. The primary reason for this is that as I watch myself operate, and keep tabs on how I am performing, I find that I often multi-task in a very inefficient way. I move from checking email every minute, to five tasks that I am working on concurrently. This is on top of the things that I am thinking about and the interruptions outside of email that I get from team members.

 

My observations of my performance have led me to see these problems:

 

1. Everything becomes a crisis, either my tasks, other people's tasks, or just projects in general.
   
2. Planning becomes a chore b/c everything feels like it is changing too fast, and that you are always trying to fight the fires that come upon you when you have so many open tasks.
   
3. My mind seems to be very inefficient and trying to close simple tasks, it goes into analysis paralysis or adding complexity where there really isn't any.
   
4. I seem to add risk to every small project, even if the risk may not be there, or the likelihood of that risk becoming a real issue is very low.
   

 

So I am looking for a way to increase my ability to focus on the task at hand, and improve my ability to concentrate and solve that problem fast, effectively, and efficiently. In a nutshell, get into the zone to take my performance to the next level.

The trick seems to be what meditation teaches, the ability to empty your mind, to release all the open loops, and clear the mind to then focus on the most important item. Then concentrate on that item with the most the mind can deliver. It's amazing when I try the simple task of emptying my mind, how I hard I find that to be. I find myself looking for things to think about, or to look on the web while thinking, or reviewing my email.

 

It's very hard to get my mind to just focus on nothing. I can see how important learning that skill can be. What if you had the ability to do this before a big meeting with your general manager or a critical client meeting? Here is my goal.

 

One hour before the meeting, take 15 minutes to completely clear my mind, and focus on meditating and getting ready for the meeting. Then, once I am in that zone, focus on the top three items that need to be discussed, and accomplished during that meeting. Start with one item and concentrate on the top issues, what needs to be accomplished, what scenarios could come up, and responses and recommendations that need to be made. Then document those as notes to the agenda. Do that for the three items and then review those notes. Then leave ten minutes to clear your mind again and focus on your manager or your client. Concentrate on what they are looking for, what their concerns are, and imagine what they are going to do after the meeting. I think having this type of focus will lead to a tremendous ability to improve relationships, and really help your managers and clients understand your ideas, your innovations, and get those projects approved and/or implemented.

 

This is just one example of what I hope to be able to do, I want to see generally, if I can get more done, and more importantly, think about improving existing processes and developing better innovative solutions to existing problems than I have been able to over the last year.

I'm planning on trying meditation for the next two months and seeing what results I am able to achieve. I'll keep a running log once a week to see how I am progressing; should be an interesting experiment.

Obama and the economy

I'm a fan of Obama. I think he's the right candidate for our times. He brings in new spirit, he's going to challenge the established ways, and force people to look at traditional probelms differently.

That being said, I'm not an idealist. I used to be, but the world is a tough place, people don't call it politics for nothing. In the real world, you have to play hard ball, you have to be able to build coalitions, force people to yield, hold people accountable, and make change happen by dragging those along.

I think that Obama will be able to do that in time. He's going to need a strong cabinet, and build strong coalitions in congress.

My one concern is his economic plan, and the general uneasiness I have being liberal on social issues, and a conservative on financial issues. His plans include some very expensive social programs. And I am behind him on pulling resources and money from the Iraq war and diverting those funds to these programs, but his plans that hit the middle class hit me hard. Its tough to buy into something when you personally have to take a big hit. I know its for the better good, but I don't feel that penalizing middle class and in a way, penalizing success is the right way to go. That being said, I think that all of his progams will need to be reviewed, and he will need to negotiate some of his programs and I think he will have to find ways to please both sides. I look forward to a new era.

Article in the WSJ regarding Obama's economic plan:
Obama released an economic package of tax cuts and spending aimed at the working and middle classes, with an estimated cost of more than $140 billion.


View article...
The Obama campaign put the price tag for his tax cuts and spending proposals -- many of which had been announced piecemeal during the primary campaign -- at more than $140 billion a year. Campaign aides said the cost would be covered by ending the war in Iraq, closing corporate tax loopholes and allowing many of President Bush's signature tax cuts to expire in 2010

To a degree, that vow entails bureaucratic measures; he proposed a plan to simplify the tax code by allowing the Internal Revenue Service to send taxpayers their returns already completed with income and withholding information supplied by employers and banks. The taxpayer would just check the form and file it.
But for the most part, Mr. Obama displayed his belief that the tax code -- particularly tax credits -- could be used to spread wealth more evenly among all income groups. He promised that, if elected, he would press Congress to provide $1,000 tax credits to each working family. Students would get $4,000 credits for college tuition -- in exchange for 100 hours of public service a year.
Likewise, low-income families would get a larger credit for child-care expenses, and families earning less than $75,000 would receive a $500 credit if they put $1,000 into a savings account.
Each of those credits would be available even to people who earn too little to incur any income-tax liability.
Seniors who earn less than $50,000 a year would no longer have to pay income taxes, a measure his campaign estimates would provide a tax cut averaging $1,400 for seven million seniors.
For the estimated 10 million Americans who don't itemize deductions on their tax returns, Mr. Obama would allow a 10% credit for mortgage interest. University of Chicago economist Austan Goolsbee, an Obama adviser, said it would provide a boost to those suffering most from the current subprime mortgage crisis. "All the people bearing the brunt of that pain are not getting to use the major tax incentive that we already have on the books," Mr. Goolsbee said.
For business, Mr. Obama would make the research-and-development tax credit permanent, a popular measure among manufacturers.
On the spending side, he repeated his plan to extend health insurance to those in need, a program his aides say will cost as much as $65 billion a year, to be funded by allowing some of Mr. Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest taxpayers to expire. Economists estimate that would bring in $50 billion to $85 billion in additional revenue, depending on which tax breaks remain.

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