Breakdown of Para no ponerme tan ansioso, intento silenciar el teléfono y enfocarme solo en la tarea del momento.
Questions & Answers about Para no ponerme tan ansioso, intento silenciar el teléfono y enfocarme solo en la tarea del momento.
Para + infinitive is a very common structure that expresses purpose / intention:
- para ponerme = in order to make myself / to become
- para no ponerme = in order not to become / to avoid becoming
So Para no ponerme tan ansioso means “To avoid getting so anxious” or “In order not to get so anxious”.
You use para + infinitive (not por) when you’re explaining what the action is for / what the goal is. Here, the goal of silencing the phone and focusing is not to get so anxious.
With an infinitive (like poner), object and reflexive pronouns normally attach to the end of the verb:
- ponerme (not me poner)
- enfocarme (not me enfocar in this context)
So:
- para no ponerme tan ansioso = in order not to make myself / become so anxious
If the verb were conjugated (not infinitive), the pronoun would go before the verb:
- No me pongo tan ansioso. = I don’t get so anxious.
But with para + infinitive, you attach it: para no ponerme.
Literally, yes: ponerme ansioso is like “to put myself anxious”, but idiomatically it means “to make myself anxious / to get anxious”.
Spanish often uses ponerse + adjective to express a change of state:
- ponerme nervioso = to get/make myself nervous
- ponerse triste = to get/become sad
- ponerse rojo = to turn red
So ponerme tan ansioso = to get so anxious / to become so anxious. The me shows the change happens to the speaker.
Both can translate as “very”, but they’re used a bit differently:
- muy ansioso = very anxious
- tan ansioso = so anxious / that (much) anxious
tan often has a sense of comparison or degree relative to something (even if it’s only implied), and it’s common when there’s a consequence or purpose involved:
- Para no ponerme tan ansioso…
So that I don’t get so anxious… - Estoy tan cansado que no puedo pensar.
I’m so tired that I can’t think.
You could say muy ansioso here; it wouldn’t be wrong. tan ansioso just fits well with the idea “so (much), to that extent”, which motivates the strategy that follows.
The adjective ansioso / ansiosa agrees with the person it describes:
- If the speaker is male → ansioso
- If the speaker is female → ansiosa
So the sentence as written assumes a male speaker.
If a woman said it, she would say:
- Para no ponerme tan ansiosa, intento silenciar el teléfono…
The rest of the sentence doesn’t change; only the adjective changes gender to match the speaker.
Here intento is the verb intentar conjugated in the yo form (I try):
- intento silenciar = I try to silence
As a verb, intentar is followed directly by an infinitive, with no preposition:
- intento aprender español = I try to learn Spanish
- intento dormir más = I try to sleep more
If intento were a noun meaning attempt, you would use de:
- Hice un intento de silenciar el teléfono.
I made an attempt to silence the phone.
In your sentence, it’s clearly the verb usage, so: intento silenciar, not intento de silenciar.
Yes, you can say:
- Trato de silenciar el teléfono…
Both intentar and tratar de usually mean to try (to do something), and they’re often interchangeable. Notes:
- tratar de + infinitive
- More colloquial in many areas
- Slight nuance of “make an effort”
- intentar + infinitive
- Very common and neutral
- Often feels a bit more direct / straightforward
In this sentence, either is fine in Latin American Spanish:
- intento silenciar el teléfono
- trato de silenciar el teléfono
Both are natural.
In Spanish, when it’s obvious whose thing it is, speakers often omit the possessive:
- Silencio el teléfono.
- Me duele la cabeza. (literally “The head hurts me” = My head hurts.)
Here, it’s clear we’re talking about the speaker’s own phone, so el teléfono is enough. You can say mi teléfono, but it’s not necessary and can even feel slightly more marked or emphatic:
- intento silenciar mi teléfono
(OK, but more like “my phone (as opposed to someone else’s)”)
The version with el is the more neutral, natural-sounding one.
silenciar el teléfono
- To mute it, turn off sounds/notifications
- The phone stays on, just quiet
apagar el teléfono
- To turn off the phone completely (power it down)
poner el teléfono en silencio
- Literally “put the phone on silent”
- Same idea as silenciar el teléfono, just a longer phrase
In everyday Latin American Spanish, all of these are natural, but they’re not always interchangeable:
- If you want no sound, but the phone still on → silenciar / poner en silencio
- If you want it completely off → apagar el teléfono
In your sentence, the idea is managing anxiety by reducing distractions, not completely turning the phone off, so silenciar fits perfectly.
The verb enfocarse in this sense (to focus) is normally used with en:
- enfocarse en algo = to focus on something
- Me enfoco en la tarea.
- Quiero enfocarme en mis estudios.
Without en, enfocar usually keeps its more literal sense “to focus (a camera, light, etc.) on something” or “aim/direct”:
- Enfocar la cámara. = focus the camera
- Enfocar la luz hacia la puerta. = aim the light at the door
So for mental focus, think:
enfocarse en + [what you focus on]
Hence: enfocarme solo en la tarea del momento.
Traditionally:
- solo (no accent) = alone
- sólo (with accent) = only
But modern standard spelling (RAE guidelines) says the accent is not necessary in most cases, and recommends writing solo without an accent almost always.
In your sentence:
- enfocarme solo en la tarea del momento
solo clearly means “only”, not “alone”:
→ to focus only on the task at hand
Even with that meaning, the recommended modern spelling is still solo (no accent).
You might still see sólo in older texts or from writers who prefer the traditional distinction, but solo is correct here and widely accepted.
In enfocarme solo en la tarea del momento, solo modifies enfocarme en la tarea, meaning:
- focus only on the task, and on nothing else
So the idea is:
“I try to silence the phone and focus only on the current task (and not be distracted by other things).”
If you moved solo, the nuance changes:
- enfocarme en la tarea solo del momento
→ sounds odd / unnatural - solo enfocarme en la tarea del momento (with solo before enfocarme)
→ now solo can mean “I only focus on the task (and don’t do anything else at all)” depending on context
The original word order is the most natural and clear for “focus only on this task.”
la tarea del momento literally means “the task of the moment” and is an idiomatic way to say:
- the task at hand
- the current task
- whatever I’m working on right now
It stresses focusing on what you’re doing right now, not past or future tasks.
Other options are possible, but have slightly different tones:
- la tarea actual
- more formal, can sound like “the current (ongoing) project”
- la tarea de este momento
- grammatical, but wordier and less idiomatic
- la tarea que estoy haciendo ahora
- very clear, more explanatory
del momento is short, natural, and common in spoken language.
You need the me attached to each infinitive:
- ponerme
- enfocarme
You cannot say me enfocar in that spot; with an infinitive in this structure, the pronoun attaches to the end:
- ✅ enfocarme
- ❌ me enfocar (here)
Both actions (silencing the phone and focusing) are things I do, so the reflexive me is used twice:
- para no ponerme tan ansioso
- …y enfocarme solo en la tarea…
If you conjugated both verbs instead of using infinitives, then me would go before each conjugated verb:
- Para no me pongo tan ansioso, me enfoco solo en la tarea… ❌ (still wrong: should be:)
- Para no ponerme tan ansioso, me enfoco solo en la tarea… ✅
So with infinitives after para or another verb, attach the pronoun to the infinitive: ponerme, enfocarme.