Finding Focus in the Storm
Learning to slow down to the speed of present
A few years ago during a lunch meeting, my CFO said to me “we should all slow down to the speed of present”. It was such a beautiful insight. We were scaling the business rapidly, hitting aggressive growth targets and managing multiple product launches simultaneously, and it all felt like the perfect storm. Fatigue was settling in with the teams and we needed to shift gears before everyone hit the wall we were speeding towards.
These words have never left my mind and serve as a constant reminder for me when I find myself speeding towards the wall.
The Unpredictable Storm
I used to suffer from Meniere’s Disease which is chronic disorder of the inner ear that affects balance and hearing. It’s named after the French physician Prosper Ménière, who first described it in the 1800s. The musician Ryan Adams and Broadway actor Kristin Chenoweth have both suffered from this disease.
Imagine having the worst hangover of your life and multiply that by 1000. Room spinning, nausea ensues and is followed by great exhaustion.
What is so unsettling about this disease is you never know when the attack will happen. It comes on sudden and unexpected. My doctor shared with me during one of my visits that she treats a lot of C-Suite executives with Meniere’s but they rarely share it with their colleagues as they do not want to appear incapable.
I remember one time while I was leading marketing at C.F. Martin & Co. (Martin Guitar) I was in a senior leadership team meeting. Suddenly I was having an episode and I panicked and tried to focus on something in the room. At that time, I didn’t tell anyone at the company my diagnosis. After the meeting I was asked to meet with our CHRO who told me that I need to focus and I appear to be “zoning out” in the meeting we just had. At that point, I knew I needed to share with her what I was going through even at the risk of being met with scrutiny whether I was capable of executing my job. Thankfully that was not the case as I was met with empathy and care.
Meniere’s can be unpredictable and disruptive, especially because vertigo episodes can happen without warning. Some people experience long periods of remission, while others deal with chronic symptoms.
I would be driving on the highway and an attack would happen and I would need to try to safely pull over and wait until the episode passed. Or I would be leading a meeting, and an episode would happen.
It is quite debilitating and I was greatly impacted.
I was misdiagnosed for years. And there is no cure. The process to finding a solution is trial and error. I had steroids injected in my eardrum, lots of medication and sedatives.
When an attack would happen, I couldn’t move, speak and once the attack is over, I would be completely depleted. One of the things my doctor would tell me to do when I was having an episode was to focus on something - an object in the room to help center myself.
Little did I know this medical coping strategy would become a metaphor for how I’d need to approach my entire professional life.
I thankfully do not suffer from episodes anymore but I am reminded of the advice from my doctor - to find an object and focus on it when I’m having an episode.
The Myth
This world, this life can come at us full speed. We have conditioned ourselves to juggle many things at the same time. I used to brag about being a master at multitasking. I could hold multiple conversations at the same time, work on multiple projects. I thought I was being so productive, so capable, so efficient. I laugh now because of the lies I told myself to make myself feel better and to silence the little imposter syndrome demon that was squarely planted on my shoulder.
And while I was completing each assignment, I was undoubtedly working harder and not smarter. And if I’m honest, I was not really executing any of the projects well.
“Multitasking is a myth. What you’re really doing is switching between tasks. It’s almost always more efficient to focus on one task at a time.” —Dr. Sahar Yousef , Cognitive Neuroscientist UC Berkeley
Dr. Yousef’s perspective is one I’ve come to believe. I have been practicing with intention to focus on one task at a time, completing it timely and efficiently. It’s been a hard practice and I’m far from mastering it but I have discovered the benefits of dedicating a specific amount of time to one project and have seen how it heightens my creativity and impact.
One Task at a Time: A Smarter Path to Productivity
We live in a world that glorifies multitasking. But the truth? Our brains aren’t wired for it. Every time we toggle between emails, texts, and tasks, we’re not multitasking—we’re switch-tasking, and that constant shifting comes at a cost: lower productivity, more errors, and increased mental fatigue.
I came across this New York Times Opinion columnist who shared a powerful 7-day challenge designed to help us retrain our attention and embrace the power of single-tasking.
I’m sharing the framework below because I have tried it and I believe it beautifully illustrates what it means to work smarter, not harder:
The 7-Day Single-Tasking Challenge
Day 1: Just 10 Minutes of Focus
Choose one task. Turn everything else off. Two uninterrupted 5-minute intervals. You’ll be amazed at how good it feels.
Day 2: Curate a Realistic To-Do List
Ditch the 30-task list. Choose 10–12 specific, doable items. Focus on completion, not chaos.
Day 3: Align Your Body and Mind
Take short breaks, stretch, breathe. Physical alignment supports mental clarity.
Day 4: Mute the Noise
Log out of email and social apps for an hour. Let focus—not alerts—guide you.
Day 5: Find an Accountability Partner
Share your priority task with someone you trust. A little external pressure goes a long way.
Day 6: Deep Work for 2 Hours
Block off time, silence distractions, and immerse yourself in one meaningful project. Flow state, unlocked.
Day 7: Reflect and Reset
What worked? What didn’t? Take what serves you, and carry it forward.
The Gift
I have a birthday coming up and for me it’s always a great opportunity to slow down and reflect. The incorporation of this practice has brought into clearer focus so many things that once were a blur - just as I had to learn to focus on a single object during Meniere’s episodes, I’ve learned to focus on what truly matters in life.
When I feel tossed around like the waves in a tumultuous sea, I lay my eyes on the cross. God anchors me and recenters my heart and my mind. He helps me “slow down to the speed of present.”
The past few years have been nothing short of transformative for me. It’s been a gift from God that I didn’t know I needed but now can’t imagine life without it. Life has a different rhythm for me now because what I deem important has shifted.
Go forth my Muses and be the way. I am rooting for you, always.
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