Originally written in French. Translated by AI — the meaning has been preserved, not the prose.
Short definition
The sub-problem attention is trained on at a given moment in a working context — written down, dated in effect by its place in the living state, and replaced as soon as attention moves.
Full definition
In ordinary usage, the word designates a quality of attention: being concentrated, not scattering. It is a mental state, and it has no content.
In the articles on this blog, the focus is on the contrary a written object, with a precise content: "today we're cutting article 2's ideas into separate posts". It lives in the living-state folder, with the plan of the moment, the pending actions and the state of progress — that is, among the files rewritten at every session. Its function isn't to say what you want to obtain but at what depth to work now: it gives the focal length where the mission gives the direction.
It is meant to be reloaded at the start of each session and to be replaced without precaution: rewriting a focus isn't a change of course, and nothing is kept from its successive versions.
Usage in the field
Used to explain why an assistant given only the mission's goal works too vaguely, and to designate the file you update several times in a single day.
Synonyms and variants
"the attention of the moment" in the formulation that sets it against the goal; "what we're on" in speech, a turn of phrase that is precisely the source of confusion with the mission.
Not to be confused with
- Mission — the goal of a context, written once and unchanged. Both answer the question "what are we working on?", and it is that homonymy which gets them wrongly filed together.
- plan — the sequence of steps foreseen to reach the goal. It states a trajectory; the focus states only one point of it, the one you are at.
- list of upcoming actions — actions set down so you no longer have to hold them in mind. It contains what you aren't doing now; the focus says what you are doing now.
- Context — a durable workspace gathering sources, notes, decisions and drafts. The focus is one of its most volatile files.
Examples
On a mission producing posts, the focus moves within the same week from "transcribe the PDF of the three articles" to "cut up article 2's ideas" then to "harmonize the hooks", without the mission having moved a line.
Ambiguities / debates
The word is received as a disposition — "stay focused" — whereas here it designates a written content. Used in the ordinary sense in front of an arrangement of this kind, it suggests there is nothing to record, and the file stays on its first line for weeks.