Get a handle on complexity
one intentional focus at a time
If you’re like me, this time of year focuses my and my team’s finite efforts on bold endeavors that we’ve determined matter most.
But if you, team members, or direct reports still get flustered in managing workflow amidst a full life and a complicated world, I want to share something with you.
It’s among the simplest, most game-changing practices and habits I’ve trained clients, groups, and teams in. At least, according to recent feedback—including from our most recent Deepen Your Focus & Flow at Work Cohort, which over 14,000 17,000 people have now been trained in.
It’s called an Intentional Focus. Specifically, a Post-It-Sized Intentional Focus. I have alluded to it before, but I’ve not really shared lately how fundamental it is. That’s what I want to share with you today and then invite you to share yours - because there’s also evidence-backed power in sharing it with others.
Apology and Thanks: And before I do, I want to apologize: On Friday, I accidentally hit “Send” before I finished edits. I had to undo it and resend. Sorry - my first Substack flub but certainly not my first digital publishing flub in 20 years. By the way, I really appreciate the TW Community support in our switch to Substack. We’re still in ‘startup’ stage on this platform, but so far I’m enjoying it and especially the connections it encourages. Over the summer, we aim to revisit ways to foster even more meaningful and useful connection at The Wonder HUB.
Meanwhile, keep an eye out tomorrow in your inbox: We are opening registration for the Deepen Your Focus & Flow at Work Cohort - a multi-week concurrent course, community portal, and live events that will equip you to retrain your brain to focus and unfocus well. Premium paid members + Possibility Patron Founding Members of The Wonder HUB will receive a sizable discount on an already discounted rate. Regardless, I really hope you join us this spring!
During this season of amped-up activity, I'm absorbing many insights related to our long-term human flourishing together in this new world of work—insights I’ll share in the coming months and that will inform what we offer. But for today, I want to focus on how you meet your priorities amidst complexity.
Set your focus in advance
Here’s the situation as one client recently described it:
This client has a packed schedule. But he’s carved out and scheduled specific 60-minute Focus & Flow blocks to advance the endeavor (a business model reboot) we’re working on together. Here’s the hitch we had identified: when he arrived at his “appointment” with his own work, he got flustered. He spent too much time in the moment trying to remember where he left off and what to focus on: Where was I? What do I need to do now? Do I have the right files or resources?
Before he knew it, half of his 60 minutes was gone—lost not in doing the work, but in reacquainting himself with the work. In other words, trying to focus.
So the endeavor kept getting pushed back. Again.
The real sources of the problem
This problem isn’t due to lack of discipline or time management. It’s more fundamental. It’s rooted in how our brains are wired and how they respond to complexity, ambiguity, and change.
We humans like simplicity. Our brains evolved to conserve energy, which often means avoiding effortful cognition. Psychologist Roy Baumeister and others have found that making decisions, even small ones, drains our mental energy. In fact, Baumeister is credited with coining “decision fatigue.” When we face uncertainty or complex challenges, our default is often to avoid or delay. This aligns with what's known as cognitive miserliness: the tendency to conserve mental effort, especially in ambiguous situations.
Deep work, by nature, is cognitively demanding and uncertain. It doesn’t deliver instant gratification. It asks you to think, imagine, plan, structure. That kind of work often looms like a mountain in the psyche. Given a choice between tackling complexity or checking off a quick to-do, your adaptive unconscious tends to pick the easy win.
And there’s another factor: Only about 4% of the brain’s total volume is devoted to conscious, focused attention. We’re simply not wired for sustained focus across 8-hour days. That’s why trying to jump into a complex project on the fly rarely works.
But you can help your brain by setting it up for success.
Break it down before you begin
What I recommended to my client—and what I recommend to you— to test out is this:
Set aside one meta Focus & Flow session, about 30–45 minutes, just to break down your big, complex endeavor into manageable next steps. Then define what I call an Intentional Focus for each of your upcoming blocks of time.
When I talked this client through the habit of naming a clear Intentional Focus in advance of each session, a light bulb went off. I’ve seen that light bulb go off countless times with high-performing leaders and creatives alike.
Here’s how it works:
At least once a week, set a time to review your calendar and your most important endeavor. In that same review session:
Schedule 2 to 3 Focus & Flow blocks across the week.
For each block, define a single, doable task you aim to complete. That’s your Intentional Focus.
Write each one down on a Post-It, in your calendar, or wherever you’ll see it at the time of your session.
The best Intentional Focus statements begin with a verb and are simple enough to be “Post-It sized” at least in your mind and memory:
Draft the article on career transitions in midlife.
List all the steps needed to prepare my keynote.
Create a timeline for our project.
Shoot a 3-minute video on inspiring your team.
Secure the podcast guest on climate activism.
When you sit down for your Focus & Flow block, there’s no guessing, no reorienting. Your prefrontal cortex, your brain’s executive center—is cued to act. You get traction faster. You move your endeavor forward.
Why it works and how it builds confidence
This small habit works because it gives your brain clarity, purpose, and a simple cue to act. It converts abstract complexity into concrete action. In doing so, it quiets the part of the mind that gets overwhelmed or uncertain in the face of big, ambiguous endeavors.
But there’s something else. Over time, this practice builds your confidence. Each time you follow through on an Intentional Focus, you send yourself a signal: I can handle complexity. I can take action, one focus at a time. You’re showing not just telling yourself that you can meet the challenge. That’s a quiet, steady kind of confidence that no pep talk can deliver.
Our world is complicated. Emphasis on “our.” But amid the complications we’ve contributed to, there remain numerous possibilities.
Sometimes just forming a habit as simple as naming an Intentional Focus renews our sense of agency, our capacity to choose where our attention goes, and how we bring our most impactful work to life.
Your Turn to Wonder
»> What’s one bold, complex endeavor you want to move forward this season, and what’s one clear, doable Intentional Focus you can focus on next?
Hit reply if you’re reading by email or respond in the Comments if you’re reading in Substack.
Thank you for reading The Wonder Dispatch, for participating in The Wonder HUB on Substack, and for showing up for the work you’re here for and the work at hand.
If you try this habit, I’d love to hear how it goes. If you have a similar focus habit of your own, tell me about it. Or if you have a question you'd like me to address in a future Dispatch, hit reply and let me know.
Curious to go deeper into Focus & Flow for impactful work? Watch your inbox. I’ve shared my historical challenges with focusing and what I’ve done over the years to help, now, over 17,000 people retrain their brain to focus. Tomorrow we open registration - and I really hope you join us. Premium paid members and founding Possibility Patrons, watch out for a gift of a discount (thank you for your awesome support).
Curiosities on Jeffrey’s Wonder Radar
A 96 Year Old on Being a Child of Wonder (End Well Project/Instagram) - I want to be like Dot - not just when I am 96 but now! H/t to Seth David Branitz.
The Art of Befriending Time and Change: Debbie Millman’s Illustrated Love Letter to Gardening as a Portal to Self-discovery (Maria Popova | The Marginalian) - in true Maria style, a loving review of a lovely book by a generous human being who is growing beyond her legacy of Design Matters
Why HARO (Help a Reporter Out) 3.0 is worse than Substack - Amanda Lauren’s take on getting media interviews
5 Brilliantly Sneaky Ways Neurodivergent Entrepreneurs Can Outsmart the ‘Normy’ Business World (Dr. Jeff | Substack) - As more clients and community members discover their neurodivergence, this piece seemed spot-on with the Tracking Wonder approach, too.
Keep grounded as you harness all the spring time energy.
Meanwhile, you can connect with me on LinkedIn, too, where I share ideas and prompts to help you tend to your mind, your team, and your endeavors this month.
But if you really want to stay connected, join up in The Wonder HUB.
I appreciate you and am honored to walk and run with you.
