Wisdom is the prime thing

We live in a society of constant distraction. It molds our minds into a state of continuously splintered attention. For instance, while doing some reading, the phone rings. As you get off the phone, your cell phone beeps to alert you to a text message. To answer it you get online to look something up, and in the process remember something else you needed to look for. You go to send an email, but a more pressing email demands to be read and answered. Now you’re back to your reading and are besieged by various thoughts. By the end of the chapter, you have trouble remembering anything you read.

What can be done to reclaim consciousness, hone concentration, and sharpen focus?

“Concentration” is the ability to bring to, or direct to, a common center. To “focus” is to fix or settle attention on one thing. The challenge is three-fold:

1. To decide on a target of concentration
2. To purposefully direct the attention to that focal point
3. To keep it there resolutely despite would-be distractions

Let’s introduce a dichotomy here to help us analyze this topic. Without getting too Aristotelian, we’ll separate the objects of focus into two categories:

• Internal objects of attention - thoughts, feelings, mental states
• External objects of attention - everything else

Distraction is a two-pronged problem. There are external stimuli that serve to pull us away from the center we have fixed attention on. And there are internal thoughts, worries, or concerns that hijack consciousness and pull us away from our center. What is needed is a two-pronged approach to the problem of improving concentration, one that addresses both the internal and external sides of concentration and distraction.

Let’s start with improving external concentration.

How do I increase the strength of my external concentration?

Most books on the subject encourage regular practice, with purposeful progression to more and more challenging forms of practice, thus increasing the power of focus. These practice sessions can and should be fun, but simultaneously train the mind to choose an object of focus at will, bring all attention to bear on the chosen goal, and maintain attention there unswervingly.

Examples of such forms of concentration training are Sudoku, chess, crossword puzzles, and other games that sharpen mental acuity. Another choice is programming. Writing and optimizing complicated SQL queries, for instance, is a very challenging exercise in building concentration.

The idea is that in each of these activities, your attention span grows, and your brain learns to hold simultaneously more and more thoughts on its “stack”. The fatigue you feel after an intense period of such concentration is unique, but because of mental plasticity, your brain becomes more adept at handling that level of complexity in the future.

Another helpful exercise is memorization. Spending some time each day memorizing keeps the mind healthy and active. There are excellent books about memory that are easy to use and make memorizing fun. Memorizing can be used to learn all the stories of the Greatest Man book, or other information that is pertinent and interesting. Then during down times, such as while taking public transportation, your mind can get a healthy workout by performing reviews.

How can sports activities improve my concentration?

Sports activities are an excellent way to improve focus and concentration. Some, such as golf, seem especially suited for the job. Golf players must be able to block out noise, movement, insecurities, and all other distractions for long periods of time, while maintaining complete relaxation in their body in order to execute a shot cleanly. Any tension caused by distractions will cause a kink in their delivery and mar their stroke.

It has been said that Tiger Woods has an attention span that is two inches wide and five miles long, whereas most of us have attention that is five miles wide and only two inches long.

Here again, setting up a training program that allows for progressive advancement will be beneficial. Training sessions can focus on improving concentration in two ways:

1. Increasing the depth of concentration required, purposefully practicing during times of greater distraction

2. Increasing the length of time under concentration

How can I improve my concentration at other times of the day?

Concentration can be improved not just on the golf course, or when a chess opponent sits before you, but everywhere.

For instance, how many times while sitting at a meeting, do we hear someone walk into the hall late and turn around? Because we allow our concentration to falter, we miss a few sentences of the speaker, which hinders our full appreciation of his point. But did we want our attention to be distracted at that moment, or did we allow it to happen because we weren’t purposefully controlling our actions and reactions?

We can use occasions like meetings to set specific focus goals for ourselves. A goal could be, “I will be one-hundred percent involved in the first five minutes of this talk without any distractions”. Now, initially, that is going to be difficult to do without allowing the mind to wander. But with time, we gain the ability to focus our minds exclusively on what the brother is saying, not allowing any external stimuli to shake it. As time goes on, we can, again, progressively increase the length of time under concentration by setting new goals for ourselves. Eventually, we can make it through a whole meeting without once allowing our attention to be distracted by noises, latecomers, or earthquakes.

More helpful hints for improving concentration on external stimuli can be found from this University of Kent article on concentration.

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How about improving internal concentration and reducing the attendant distractions? Read Improving Concentration, Part II.

In this series:

• Part I - Sharpening focus
• Part II - Avoiding distraction
• Part III - Putting it all together