Everyday Mindfulness

I have been trying to practice mindfulness for the past few months. First tried just focusing on what I was doing- eg. driving- focusing on the road, signs, people...but realized that I tend to get distracted easily. I guess signs, people, etc start a chain of thoughts. Then as in insight meditation tried focusing on my body during activities. So in the example of driving, I focused on where my limbs were, sensations, movements, etc but again couldnt keep focus for long, my mind found it too complicated maybe.

I had best results with focusing on my breath during everyday activities. I could keep focus on my breath much longer before being carried away into thoughts again.

My problem is that when I am focusing on my breath, I am not really focusing on the task. So if driving, I am focusing on inhalation and exhalation but not really focusing on 'driving', much like being lost in thought while driving. I am not really focusing on the road, signs....and my subconscious is doing the work as it always is. Is that OK?

Hi Mint.
Good question and not an easy one to answer without knowing anything about your practice. Have you done the eight-week course? Do you have a regular meditation practice?
Getting a firm grounding in mindfulness is crucial, in my opinion. Otherwise we can easily confuse being mindfully present and self-consciously striving for a particular result. This is why Jon Kabat-Zinn says that mindfulness is simple but it's not easy.
If you could give a little more information about your practice, I'll ponder your question some more.
In the meantime, all best wishes.
Cheers, Jon

No I haven't taken any course yet. I have been meditating for past 6 months using the vipassana technique and shall be joining an 8 week long course for the same next month. My current understanding of vipassana is based on reading and YouTube videos. I recently read books by Jon Kabat-zinn and watched his videos on YouTube. I understand the concept of ' just being' although staying in that state for long isn't easy. I find focusing on breath easier.

The rt. hon. Biosattva of this parish is probably the best to advise re. mindfulness/vipassana. Though I'm told the practices are very similar, I don't know enough about vipassana to comment.
I'm presuming there will be fundamental differences in approach between a mindfulness course and a vipassana course…