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Deep focus

Getting into the zone, on purpose.

You know the feeling. An hour of Tetris disappears and you are not even sure what you were thinking. Psychologists call it flow: the challenge matches your skill, the feedback is instant, and self-consciousness drops away.

Games are some of the best flow machines ever built, which means you already know what deep focus feels like. The trick is learning how to find it elsewhere.

Train it on purpose

  1. Phone in another room. One game, one hour. Notice how much better you play.
  2. When you hit the zone, notice what got you there: the speed, the music, the difficulty.
  3. Try to recreate those conditions for one boring task this week.

Off the couch

Study, work, training, learning guitar. In a world built to distract you, being able to drop into one thing and stay there is close to a superpower. It also makes you better company: giving someone your full attention, phone face-down, is one of the most attractive things a person can do.

Sources

  1. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.

Games that train it

Adventures of Lolo coverAdventures of Lolo
A Lolo room shrinks the world to one screen. Get into it and the next half hour vanishes.Balloon Fight coverBalloon Fight
Balloon Trip scrolls forever through sparks with one life. It's simple and very hard to put down.Bomberman coverBomberman
Fifty levels of similar mazes, solo. It's a puzzle to dip into, and once you're in it, it's hard to look away.California Games coverCalifornia Games
Footbag is oddly hypnotic: keep the little bag in the air and the whole room goes quiet while you do.Dr. Mario coverDr. Mario
On a high-speed level the bottle fills, the next pill is already showing, and the room goes quiet. Every placement gets an answer straight away: a clear, a chain or a mess.F-Zero coverF-Zero
There's no two-player race, so it's you against your own lap times. Super Jet held, dash plate ahead, and your thumbs stop feeling like thumbs.Journey to Silius coverJourney to Silius
The sampled bass hits harder than anything the NES is supposed to manage, and the music carries you through grey corridors of robots.Mario Paint coverMario Paint
Animation Land strings four, six or nine frames together. Getting a loop to look smooth takes quiet, patient attention.Pilotwings coverPilotwings
Fly through rings, then land as close to the target as you can. Nailing a dead-centre landing takes total concentration.Pinball coverPinball
It's a good five-minute game. The ball takes the odd bounce no real table would give, so you can't switch off.Rad Racer coverRad Racer
The stripes rush at you and the pressure is the whole game. Fifteen minutes of it is pure tunnel vision.Summer Carnival '92: Recca coverSummer Carnival '92: Recca
Enemies pour in, bullets fill the screen, and the Famicom strains under the flicker. You only survive in full tunnel vision.Tetris Attack coverTetris Attack
Because you can swap panels while others are still falling, a quick player keeps a chain going on the fly. That only happens when you're fully in it.Tetris coverTetris
The early levels are relaxing; by 18 or 19 the tension is real and every placement is a commitment.Top Gun coverTop Gun
Refuelling and the carrier landing want a light hand and total concentration, and with three planes and no continues every slip costs you.Yoshi's Cookie coverYoshi's Cookie
A tiny rule that opens into a deep, calm, compulsive game. One more level is never one more level.