文︰子慧
Focus解專註、專心。孩子坐不定，做功課、溫習時分心，家長會教他們必須focus。Concentrate的意思差不多，解全神貫注、集中。看到學生上課時分心，老師就會叫他們：”Concentrate!”（「集中精神！」）
專註易成功？
我們都相信，要做事成功，focus不可少，所以孩子一定要學會focus。Focus的相反是unfocus，而unfocus往往就是一事無成的原因。起碼這是我們大部分人的想法。Harvard Medical School心理學副教授Srini Pillay在他的Think Less, Learn More: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind中有這樣的觀察：
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（組織工作）, more detailed plans（細緻的籌劃） or even getting an advanced degree – will be the solution to their issues.
Hurdle是田徑運動的欄架，或跨欄賽；例如︰I am taking part in the 100m hurdles tomorrow.（我明天會參加一百公尺跨欄賽。）Hurdle也解obstacle，障礙；例如︰To reach your goal, you have to get over many hurdles.（要達到目標，你必須跨越許多障礙。）
很多人認為要進步就要focus，包括組織自己，為生命、工作、前途，做更完善的規劃。事實上，focus確有很多好處，甚至是必須的：
Indeed, focus can be a tremendous（極好的） change agent. It keeps you on target（對準目標） until a job is done, allowing you to coordinate（協調） your thinking, emotions and movement to execute（執行） and finish a job.
忽略其他範圍
但他指出，過分的focus，即hyper-focus，會有反效果︰
For all its “clear” benefits, however, I believe that too many of us have unwittingly（不經意地） bought into the idea of what I call the cult（異教） 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.
他說focus像腦袋中的電筒，有它的作用，但專註照着某個小範圍，就令我們看不到其他。
In the extreme（極端）, focus begets（引起） a kind of “blinker vision”（戴着眼罩的視覺）, 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（損害）.
最佳的腦筋運作方式，就是可以自如地在focus與unfocus的狀態間遊走。令腦袋進入unfocus狀態的方法包括︰”resting（休息）, napping（小睡）, and even adopting a persona（角色代入）”。書中他教大家詳細的unfocus方法。
