In The Focus

The Simple Newsletter - Issue # 053

Happy New Year!

In this issue, I’m sharing a reflection on time and why it seems to fly by in some moments and crawl in others. What started as a familiar phrase led me to a deeper realization about focus, presence, and where my attention is really going. As I thought about how quickly seasons and years pass, this idea kept resurfacing. This issue is an invitation to slow down, not by doing less, but by being more present in what matters most.

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ADAM'S THOUGHTS:

I’ve been thinking a lot about the phrase “time flies when you’re having fun.”

And what I’ve realized is… that’s not actually true.

Time flies when you’re focused.

When you’re truly focused, you’re paying attention to one thing—and nothing else outside of it. Time included. You can sit down at your desk at noon, look up, and suddenly it’s three hours later. You worked hard. You put in effort. But your energy wasn’t drained. It didn’t feel like three hours.

On the other end of the spectrum, you can be sitting in a doctor’s office doing absolutely nothing, and fifteen minutes feels like three hours. You’re not focused. You’re just waiting. Time crawls.

So that got me thinking…

Why did the Christmas season fly by for me?

I wasn’t really focused on it. My wife was—buying gifts, organizing, decorating. I helped here and there, maybe put up lights one weekend, but that was about it. And yet, from Thanksgiving to Christmas, the season disappeared.

Here’s what I realized:

Tom and I were deeply focused on building our plan for 2026.

Every day, we were intentionally paying attention to who we are, what we do, and who we serve. Late nights. Early mornings. Drafts, revisions, commitments, doubts, recommitments.

That’s where the focus was.

That’s why time flew.

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ADAM'S LESSON:

This isn’t really a lesson about what you should do. It’s an observation about what I’ve learned.

Time is going to fly—and it’s only going to move faster.

Why? Because I don’t allow myself to be distracted very often anymore. I rarely spend time without a predetermined focus. I’m almost never just sitting around with nothing to do.

Which means this next decade?

It’s going to go by in a blink.

I can remember pieces of the past.

I still haven’t figured out how to see into the future. (P.S. I’ll let you know if I do.)

So that leaves one option:

I’d better enjoy each and every moment I’m focused on—because I’m going to wake up one day, and it’ll be 2036.

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CLOSING THOUGHTS

Be present.

Time will fly.

But man… it can be a lot of fun while it does.

-Adam

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