No not oranges. What are the techniques you use for concentrating on your work? I’m knee deep in my thesis and find it hard to do any sort of sustained work. Maybe everyone is like this. It’s extremely irritating. When I’m reading a book (academically/studiously) my concentration goes after a ridiculously short time. How do I apply the attention span I have for a novel or history book I’m reading at my leisure to my academic reading?
Oh well, I’ll get it done eventually one way or another. Or not :eek: .
I work on several things at once, switching from one to another as my concentration goes, but always push to put in at least 30 minutes every hour on the main project. I can easily lose track of time and get a lot done if I give myself limited leeway to screw around a bit whenever I get bored. Sometimes I don’t get much done at all each hour, while other sessions actually last for hours without taking much of a break.
Some people use a timer that resets after 30 minutes. They tell themselves that they’ll work on a project just until the timer goes off and then take a 5–10 minute break if they aren’t really into it. A lot of the time they’ll just go right into the next 30 minute session because the momentum of actually getting started with the mental crutch of a limited time span carries through into a good work flow.
There are a lot of good ideas at 43 Folders about a system called Getting Things Done, which is apparently the in thing in the geek crowd lately. The problem with any system is that it lends itself to fiddling, where you waste time categorizing, organizing, and doing the system rather than getting on with what you’re supposed to be doing.
Deadlines. But they have to be real deadlines imposed by people who will kill me/fire me/not pay me/flunk me if said deadlines are not met. The ones I impose on myself just don’t count and something in me knows it. No, once I’m completely backed to the wall, I can concentrate just fine.
There are people who can set their own deadlines, though.
The other thing is to break things down into manageable, minuscule time increments. For instance you can give it your full attention for 10 minutes, right? How about 20? Set an alarm.
I could write well first thing in the morning, and late at night. But between 1pm and 6pm I would get nothing done.
So I stopped trying and took that time off - and didn’t feel guilty about not working. Then I’d sit down after dinner and get another 4-5 hours done before bed.
There’s nothing worse than sitting at a desk for 3-4 hrs and having nothing to show - you’re better off relaxing and then working hard when you can.
For thesis work, I’d say 5 good hours a day is a decent target.
re. the “50,000 words by July” deadlines… you’re better breaking it down to “I’ll have done 400 words by the end of the day”.
I tend to suffer from wandering brain a bit, here’s a few strategies I use:
I set in advance a time and date that I will do the work (e.g. tomorrow, from 10am till 4pm I will work on X). It mentally prepares me and puts me in the right state of mind.
Before that time, I do all the tasks that might distract me from the work (e…g if I’m working at home, I will make sure all the housework is done before 10am so I’m not being distracted by the fact that the carpet really needs vacuuming).
Just before I start work, I make sure my work area is properly set up. All the supplies I need, pens, paper, etc. and all nicely arranged. It just helps me feel ‘ready’.
I work solidly for 45 minutes, then take a 15 minute break. I take a full 15 minute break, completely away from the work area. I find I need the full 15 minutes to clear my mind and relax.
If, during the 45 minutes I find myself wandering, I take a full 15 minute break, and extend my timeframe by 15 minutes (e.g. I’ll now work till 4.15pm).
When I was in school, for big tests and projects I found if I took Chromium and potassium supplements and something sugary, I was able to think much much clearer for a few days.
The drawback is you don’t sleep, you lie there with your mind thinking of everything and anything.
It made a HUGE improvement in my grades and makes it easier to understand difficult concepts.
My son is taking it occasionally now and finds the same boost.
Also I agree that planing what you are going to work on at a given time helps too.
MacGyver
Strong coffee with - here’s the important part - heavy whipping cream. Preferably poured by the great old souls at the Apple Pan (seriously, their coffee sets my brain on fire).
OK, on a more serious level: I take notes as I’m reading. Questions about the text, words I need defined, tangential thoughts, whatever. I find it forces me to focus on the issue at hand. And it makes paper writing sooo much more painless. Also, like sandra_nz, I take breaks every so often.
Stimulus control. When I was in cognitive therapy we used this. The idea is that you build a habit association with your work space. Kind of like Pavlov’s dogs. You can only do work at the work space. No web surfing, no phone calls nothing else. So when you sit down to work, that’s the habit that comes up.
Rewards/competition. If I can accomplish this task by 5 PM I can watch the CSI rerun.
You have to focus just that much harder to ignore the distraction.
Try leaving something on in the background to ignore; loud enough that you can hear it without straining, but not too loud.
Music that you like, but don’t love; something like ‘Classic Hits’. Bach is good, Mozart and Beethoven might be too strong. Opera is the worst for me; it either annoys the hell out or completely engrosses me.
You can use a t.v., if you aren’t facing the screen. Sitcoms work for me; PBS distracts me.
News radio [NPR, BBC] is a toss-up; you never know when something interesting will come on. I also like foreign language radio, but that has to be at a lower volume.
Of course, if you really don’t want to work, you could find yourself obsessed baroque music, South American politics, or cricket.
