Cover Want to know how to improve focus? ‘The Odyssey’ director Christopher Nolan treat focus as something to protect, not something to force (Photo: Tim P Whitby/Getty Images for Universal Pictures)
Want to know how to improve focus? ‘The Odyssey’ director Christopher Nolan treat focus as something to protect, not something to force (Photo: Tim P Whitby/Getty Images for Universal Pictures)
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Learn how to improve focus through the habits of Christopher Nolan, Marina Abramović, Jerry Seinfeld and Rick Rubin, from slow walking to phone-free thinking time and two minutes of silence
Most advice on how to improve focus treats attention like a muscle: more timers, more apps, more discipline. The habits of four artists suggest something subtler. Artist Marina Abramović, director Christopher Nolan, producer Rick Rubin and actor Jerry Seinfeld work in very different fields, yet each has built rules that remove competition for the mind before the work begins, rather than leaning on willpower halfway through.
That matters beyond the studio. Attention is the raw material of memory, decision-making and creative thought, which makes protecting it part of cognitive health, not just productivity. None of these methods is a clinical treatment, and some demand more freedom than most schedules allow. But as experiments in how to improve focus, they are worth borrowing in small doses.
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Marina Abramović: how can slow walking train attention?
Serbian-born performance artist Marina Abramović treats attention as something the body can be trained to hold through the Abramović Method, a series of silent, screen-free endurance exercises built to sharpen present-moment awareness.
In the slow-motion walk, a staple of her method, participants move in exaggerated slow motion, so that a habit as automatic as walking demands full notice. Her institute says such exercises improve focus, stamina and concentration, and in 2010 she sat for more than 700 hours in The Artist Is Present at MoMA.
Try it: walk one familiar stretch, such as a corridor, at a fraction of your usual pace.
Marina Abramović: why is boredom part of ‘Cleaning the House’?
Above Marina Abramović created 'Cleaning the House' to prepare performers
Abramović began developing “Cleaning the House” in the 1980s while teaching, to prepare students for long-duration performance. Held in nature and led by artists she has trained, the workshops are now open to anyone in any discipline, and she describes them as a reset for body and mind.
Participants refrain from eating, speaking and reading, and complete slow, repetitive exercises such as counting rice. Materials from her Sydney residency describe boredom as crucial, not something to escape, a useful idea in an age of constant stimulation.
Try it: give one small task, such as sorting a drawer, ten minutes with no music or notifications, and notice the moment you want to switch.
Christopher Nolan: why does he avoid smartphones and e-mail?
Academy Award-winning director Christopher Nolan has said he has never owned a smartphone or used e-mail, occasionally carrying a flip phone instead. His reasoning is about attention: he describes himself as easily distracted and says he does much of his best thinking in the in-between moments that people now fill with online activity.
The late cognitive neuroscientist Jonathan Smallwood, who spent his career studying mind-wandering, linked creativity to the spontaneous thoughts that arise when minds are idle. A 2012 study he co-authored suggested that an undemanding task, which lets the mind drift, can help creative problem-solving, though he saw mind-wandering as neither good nor bad in itself.
Try it: leave your phone in your bag for one commute, queue or lift ride a day.
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Christopher Nolan: how does he keep his writing offline?
The same logic shapes Nolan’s work. He has said he writes scripts on a computer not connected to the internet, hand-delivers them to lead actors instead of e-mailing and confirmed to Jimmy Fallon during his 2026 appearance on The Tonight Show that phones are not allowed on his sets. He relies on producer Emma Thomas and his team to handle communication, a support system few people have.
Try it: switch off Wi-Fi for one drafting session, or work offline, and see how long the urge to check something lasts.
Rick Rubin: why does he start with two minutes of silence?
Above Rick Rubin began a ‘60 Minutes’ interview with two minutes of meditation
Before his 2023 interview on 60 Minutes, American producer and former music executive Rick Rubin asked host Anderson Cooper, “Should we spend two minutes eyes closed meditating before we start?” Asked whether it helps him creatively, he said, “It clears the distractions”, which he explained can block a direct connection to the creative force.
Management researcher Sophie Leroy found in a 2009 study that people struggle to move their full attention away from an unfinished task, and that their performance on the next task suffers, an effect she calls attention residue. Later work with Theresa Glomb found that making a short plan for returning to an interrupted task helped people switch more fully. Neither study tests Rubin’s ritual, but a short pause is a low-cost experiment.
Try it: take two quiet minutes between meetings.
Jerry Seinfeld: what is the ‘you can’t do anything else’ rule?
At the Tim Ferriss Show in 2020, actor Jerry Seinfeld told Tim Ferriss that his writing technique is simply this: during a session, writing is optional, but nothing else is allowed. He writes on a yellow legal pad, said the routine hasn’t changed and advises giving each session a set length, since open-ended work is a kind of torture. On a good day, he has said, the result is about half a page.
The rule echoes one set out in a 1949 letter by Raymond Chandler, the novelist who created the detective Philip Marlowe and offered writers the same two choices: write, or do nothing. Both rely on boredom: with nothing else on offer, the work becomes the easiest thing to do. Neither man demands output, only that you stay put.
Try it: pick a 25-minute block, clear your desk and either work or sit still.
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After more than a decade in lifestyle media, Clifford has mastered the art of writing seriously about things that are fun—and writing fun things about people who take themselves very seriously. At Tatler Asia, he helped steer its flagship lists, Tatler’s Most Influential and Asia’s Most Stylish. And today, he leads T-Labs, Tatler Asia’s content innovation hub, where he continues the noble pursuit of lifestyle storytelling, spinning stories on wealth, entertainment, necessary style, Hallyu, Hollywood, beauty and more for audiences across Asia.
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