1 Window
Do you find it’s easy to go from eight open windows to four, but that going from four open windows to one is much harder?
Anything over six is clutter… Between two and five is an environment that you have control over… But the move from even two to one is much more difficult.
Having only one application open increases the friction of moving between apps. That has other consequences beyond making app switching difficult, because with even a few windows open, you can maintain a sense of control over multiple data outputs, but with only one application, there is no “I have this, this, and this covered right now”.
The friction makes it harder for your focus to shift between contexts. You are making the tradeoff between split attention and multitasking for focus. It’s risky to decide to focus on just one thing and cut yourself off from everything else, but there is a positive consequence of having a single application like WriteRoom open: in that situation, all you have is the application and your focus.
When you make the tradeoff to remove your attention from other applications, you gain more focus. Focus is more uncomfortable than attention, though; it’s a trickier thing to work with. With different applications open and your attention split, your focus has room to move. Keeping a concentrated, still focus creates discomfort.
Have you ever started writing an essay with the TV on and with chat open? And then have you felt that resistance to turning off the TV and the chat to focus on writing the essay?
When you remove distractions and eliminate places for your focus to escape, getting still is difficult at first. Then, when there’s no escape or distraction to break your focus, when external factors are removed, you and your focus can connect with your work in a real, intimate way.
The You writing with IM open the TV on is not the same as the You who is focused.
