I’ma Focus… After One More Reel

I have so much work, but the Ballon d’Or ceremony was on, and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Season 2 just released.

Okay fine, I also like vibe coding while doomscrolling reels… yeah, I might be cooked.

Congrats Harry Kane for winning. I guess I’ll just win it next year.

Focusing is something a lot of us struggle with. And I don’t think it’s a motivation problem or a lack of discipline. I have interviews, projects, and a bunch of other tasks, but I always put them off or chip away at them incrementally.

Yes, it’s overstimulation. But it’s also confusion.

A lot of times, my workday looks like this. I prompt my LLM. It produces hot garbage. I reprompt. Then I wait 20–30 minutes while it cooks, and in that window, I scroll reels.

I couldn’t tell you a single one I watched. I think one was a Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown nostalgic edit.

AI was supposed to make us more productive, but it also created this weird dead time in the middle of work, and reels are the easiest thing to fill it with.

So why is it so hard to just be present? Why is it so hard not to doomscroll?

I tend to write my way out of my own problems. Sometimes identifying the issue and dissecting it is better than just telling yourself to start. So here’s my attempt.

I think the hardest thing about trying to lock in is that a lot of people don’t actually “need” to lock in today, or even four months from now.

It’s usually sold by fear.

Cut people off. Get in shape. Lambo. Courses. Looksmax.

It’s being pushed down your throat.

Growing up and going to Singapore American School and then Northeastern, I was surrounded by some great people. People who were ambitious, hardworking, and some who had raw talent.

Forget the talented ones for a second. The ambitious, hardworking people who ended up successful had one thing in common that I truly realized: they wanted to succeed because it was in their own best interest.

Not to compete. Not to flex. Not because someone told them they needed to lock in.

Some of them weren’t the smartest or the biggest try-hards, yet they ended up at good jobs and found success because they kept doing the things they loved.

It becomes easier when you aren’t doing something because an influencer told you to. It becomes easier to become anything when it’s something you are doing for yourself.

Fear sells.

You are scared of being average because you are quite literally watching someone more successful than you all day, every day. People sell courses because they can convince you that where you are right now isn’t good enough.

And even if you don’t remember what you watched, I think your brain still processes it over time.

I couldn’t tell you the fifth reel I watched today. Again, it was probably some Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown nostalgia edit.

But briefly going back to my earlier free will post, your ideas can’t truly be your own if they’re constantly influenced by other people. So is any idea truly yours?

I think this relates to focus more than it seems.

When a goal is built on fear, working toward it feels bad. And when working toward something feels bad, you avoid it.

Reels are the easiest escape possible.

Imagine this:

I need to get jacked → you force yourself to count calories and lock in → all because of influencers → you start → you fail → you get more insecure → you start doing things unnaturally, starving, looking up shortcuts → comparing yourself…

Or:

I’ma go to the gym because it’s fun, and I want a Toji physique for the bants.

The second person isn’t necessarily more disciplined.

It’s just not built on fear.

They enjoy it, they allow themselves to make mistakes, and they keep doing it because they actually want to.

That’s the part I’m realizing about my own focus. The reels aren’t really the problem. They’re just what I reach for when the thing in front of me starts feeling like an obligation someone else handed me.

Yes, the common detachment concept.

So I did something about it.

I just deleted TikTok and Instagram.

Please, future Shreyas, don’t download them again and start watching old Neymar edits.