Thanks. I used to be the same way. Somehow I've learned to focus on what was giving me the insights rather than what I was focusing on to gain the insights, if that makes any sense? When I think about someone now, that's good enough to bring my intuitions.
When I was very young, I used to ask 'why' about everything, and I mean every little detail, that I picked up on. I think this is truly the function of Ni - an ability to notice subtlety that most others do not, and a curiosity to understand what we percieve. It didn't take me long to start to form some basic intuitive pattern deductions once I started to understand what the little details meant through use of my Fe. For example, I could always sense people on an empathic level, naturally using Ni and Fe in conjunction, but I had to learn the meaning of what I was sensing. My perceptions were perfectly clear, but I had no context until I asked 'why' enough to get my Fe to realize what the source of what I was sensing meant. Only then did I realized that a certain feeling means someone is angry about being embarassed, another feeling means hurting from emotional abuse, another feeling is angry about not getting a toy, etc. As my subconscious pattern recognition grew in specific areas, I was able to then use the pieces together and develop more and more generalized areas.
I think that I have finally learned how to let my Fe accept any and all of my Ni cues about a person as relevant, and then process from there into the answers by either applying my Ni perceptions to my Fe 'pattern data base' or using my Ti 'pattern data base' to help my Ni ask and my Fe answer 'why' with much less research, if any. However, it is more likely that I have only learned to interpret the subtle cues of patterns in internet communication and added them to my Ni / Fe pattern recognition. I am still learning how to apply this process to situations outside my Fe concerns.
In any case, that's how my Ni / Fe works, how it developed, and may explain why I am (or at least seem) psychic. I would wager a lot of the other INFJs here have had a similar experience and development.