Focus is tolerating the absence of novelty.

Focus is often described as an ability, as though some people simply have more of it. It behaves more like a tolerance. The work is not usually difficult in the moment. What is difficult is the flatness, the total absence of anything new, and the pull toward any small hit of novelty that would break it.

Watch for the exact moment you reach for your phone. It is almost never because you had a thought worth chasing. Try naming the feeling instead of acting on it, and notice how quickly it passes when you do not feed it.