In the last day, I’ve had the worst problems concentrating on any task for more than about 10 minutes at a time. Part may be a bit of a cold: I have the standard slight bone-weariness I associate with a cold, plus a touch of congestion. Part may be induced by lack of sleep: I wrote into the wee hours on either Tuesday or Wednesday night (I forget which). Part may be idiosyncratic interruptions: this morning I stopped by a rental car agency to switch my rental (while I’m waiting for collision repairs to my car after last month’s hit-and-run rear-ender: don’t worry, I’m fine, as is my son, and that’s the important thing), and then I was called to a meeting on a regional campus once I got to my office (the reinstatement of an expected meeting that had been moved, since it was moved back).
I suspect the larger picture is that I spent a good part of the winter break revising a book manuscript, and my brain is just depleted of extended concentration stamina. I can breeze along fine in a well-known area, but ask me to think in a different way and pow! I’m easily distractible.
So I have my long to-do list and will chug along, switching tasks when I find my attention lagging. I have a bunch of tasks that really do require more than an hour of focus, and so I hope it returns soon.
Situational attention deficit
By Sherman Dorn on January 5, 2007
In the last day, I’ve had the worst problems concentrating on any task for more than about 10 minutes at a time. Part may be a bit of a cold: I have the standard slight bone-weariness I associate with a cold, plus a touch of congestion. Part may be induced by lack of sleep: I wrote into the wee hours on either Tuesday or Wednesday night (I forget which). Part may be idiosyncratic interruptions: this morning I stopped by a rental car agency to switch my rental (while I’m waiting for collision repairs to my car after last month’s hit-and-run rear-ender: don’t worry, I’m fine, as is my son, and that’s the important thing), and then I was called to a meeting on a regional campus once I got to my office (the reinstatement of an expected meeting that had been moved, since it was moved back).
I suspect the larger picture is that I spent a good part of the winter break revising a book manuscript, and my brain is just depleted of extended concentration stamina. I can breeze along fine in a well-known area, but ask me to think in a different way and pow! I’m easily distractible.
So I have my long to-do list and will chug along, switching tasks when I find my attention lagging. I have a bunch of tasks that really do require more than an hour of focus, and so I hope it returns soon.
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