Brain fog, constant distraction, that heavy sense of mental fatigue - they’ve become all too common features of modern working life. But it doesn’t have to be this way. By understanding how attention works, and making small shifts in how we use it, we can dramatically improve our focus, to supercharge our productivity while increasing the quality of our output.

It’s Monday. You drag yourself out of bed, sleepwalk through showering, brushing your teeth and getting ready for work. You’re now on the tube, surrounded by solemn faces rocking back and forth in the rattling carriage. You sit and think of the problems ahead of you this week: the tough client conversation you need to have, the looming project deadlines and the ever-growing life admin to-do list.

Maybe it was the gym. You got the membership, bought the gear, and rode the wave of motivation for a week or two. But then work got busy, life got noisy, the wave flattened, you found excuses not to go and the new ritual slowly faded.

“But Patrick, if I slow down, focus on doing fewer things and protect time for rest and recovery, won’t I become lazy? What has made me successful in my career so far has been my work ethic and drive. I’m worried that in slowing down I will lose that.”

At the same time, as the science shows and as I see time and time again in my coaching, the key to achieving any goal is consistency in execution of tactical actions. And the key to consistency in execution of tactical actions is in setting the bar low.

We can learn all we like from non-fiction, but some of the best sources of wisdom are in stories. Real, made up, or loosely based on facts, these stories are how we learn to interact with the world.