How to Stay Sharp
In this chapter, we’ve looked at a lot of issues around the idea of focus and attention. I have encouraged you to pursue meditation as a tool for mental sharpness and clarity, extolled the virtues of maintaining an exocortex, and warned against the dangers of distraction.
So, what does it take to stay sharp? The biggest thing is self-awareness—remembering that you need to deliberately work at staying sharp. Left to our own devices, our default settings aren’t ideal for programming and knowledge work.
If nothing else, remember to do these three things:
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Learn to quiet your chattering L-mode.
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Deliberately work with and add to thoughts in progress, even if they aren’t “done” yet.
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Be aware of just how expensive context switching ...
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