Why focus feels impossible (and what to do about it)
Ever wonder why staying focused feels so damn hard?
It’s not because you’re lazy. It’s because our brain's capacity for conscious thought has a very tight speed limit.
Research has found the speed of human thought operates at ~10 bits of information per second (BPS). About the rate of a normal speed conversation. Further, the average person can only hold roughly 5–9 discrete pieces of information in working memory at once.
In contrast, our sensory systems of vision, hearing, touch, taste etc are taking in roughly 1 billion BPS. Equivalent to downloading 100 HD movies every second.
Your eyes alone take in over 10 million bits per second.
Almost everything we experience gets filtered and processed subconsciously, with only a tiny trickle making it into our conscious awareness.
This raises a big question: how does the brain decide what matters? The answer lies in clever prioritisation.
Signals of threat, novelty, or meaning are thrust into consciousness (like a sudden noise, hunger pang, phone beeping or a gut feeling) while the rest stays under the surface.
It’s no wonder our attention feels fragile. Our conscious mind is trying to sip from an ocean of information through a straw.
So how do you optimise focus?
Reduce noise: silence notifications, simplify your workspace, remove sound and visual distractions.
Work in chunks: your attention is finite, use it in focused sprints with the Pomodoro technique.
Create clear goals: your brain locks in on what feels important, not what’s urgent.
Focus takes energy and isn’t endless.
Treat it like the rare resource it is and design where you work and what you do to protect it and get more of your best work done.