文︰子慧
Focus解专注、专心。孩子坐不定，做功课、温习时分心，家长会教他们必须focus。Concentrate的意思差不多，解全神贯注、集中。看到学生上课时分心，老师就会叫他们：”Concentrate!”（“集中精神！”）
专注易成功？
我们都相信，要做事成功，focus不可少，所以孩子一定要学会focus。Focus的相反是unfocus，而unfocus往往就是一事无成的原因。起码这是我们大部分人的想法。Harvard Medical School心理学副教授Srini Pillay在他的Think Less, Learn More: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind中有这样的观察：
Everyone wants to figure out how to get over a hurdle, reach their goals and get ahead. Most people I talk to are convinced（相信、信服） that more focus – maybe in the form of better organization（组织工作）, more detailed plans（细致的筹划） or even getting an advanced degree – will be the solution to their issues.
Hurdle是田径运动的栏架，或跨栏赛；例如︰I am taking part in the 100m hurdles tomorrow.（我明天会参加一百公尺跨栏赛。）Hurdle也解obstacle，障碍；例如︰To reach your goal, you have to get over many hurdles.（要达到目标，你必须跨越许多障碍。）
很多人认为要进步就要focus，包括组织自己，为生命、工作、前途，做更完善的规划。事实上，focus确有很多好处，甚至是必须的：
Indeed, focus can be a tremendous（极好的） change agent. It keeps you on target（对准目标） until a job is done, allowing you to coordinate（协调） your thinking, emotions and movement to execute（执行） and finish a job.
忽略其他范围
但他指出，过分的focus，即hyper-focus，会有反效果︰
For all its “clear” benefits, however, I believe that too many of us have unwittingly（不经意地） bought into the idea of what I call the cult（异教） of focus: led to believe that focus is the capability（能力） above all capabilities, the core（核心的） competence to strive for. In truth, focus, in isolation, will actually work against you and disempower（削弱） you.
他说focus像脑袋中的电筒，有它的作用，但专注照着某个小范围，就令我们看不到其他。
In the extreme（极端）, focus begets（引起） a kind of “blinker vision”（戴着眼罩的视觉）, which psychologists call intentional blindness, a syndrome wherein you are blind to some things because you simply cannot pay attention to everything; your brain makes a choice about what to focus on, sometimes to your detriment（损害）.
最佳的脑筋运作方式，就是可以自如地在focus与unfocus的状态间游走。令脑袋进入unfocus状态的方法包括︰”resting（休息）, napping（小睡）, and even adopting a persona（角色代入）”。书中他教大家详细的unfocus方法。
