Heads up or heads down
Either we are heads up, looking up, scanning the environment for what-else is going on.
Or we are heads down, doing the one thing in front of us.
We cannot do both. Trying to do both generates conflict and anxiety.
Being heads down gets us somewhere.
Being heads up ensures that we want to be at that where.
We need both.
The trick I use is this: I put deliberate heads-up points in my life. At the smallest it is using Pomodoros. The biggest is an annual review. In between there I have smaller rituals to mark life.