focus, concentration etc.

[The Cactus Leaguer]

One other thing - put me down with the group that thinks it is difficult to impossible to "suppress" things. That's like saying "don't think about the color blue!"... maybe "suppress" wasn't intended the way it came across in terms of the implications of the word.

I'm just one of those people who focuses better by simply visioning the things that I want to happen, and letting the other stuff fall by the wayside (hopefully onto a someday/maybe list so that my subconscious can quit stressing about it - "I'll get to it later, subconscious!" )

 

[eno]

re: environmental distractions... probably the best thing that I did in this area since adopting GTD was to change my Outlook settings to check email once every 2 hours. I might change it to once every 4 hours, albeit at the risk of missing something that needs more urgent attention.

Personally, I think urgent matters get to me via phone. If someone sends an email they're probably not expecting an answer within a minute so I think even longer than four hours works.

OTOH, using e.g. Gmail (or IMAP w/ only headers fetched) you get the subject for every message that arrives. While the email inbox works as just that - an inbox - you can quickly have a look whether something is urgent -- and you get notified whenever something happens instead of getting (bigger) chunks every few hours.

Setting up filters that will sort of pre-process your incoming emails is a good thing, too. That way, the inbox only is filled with emails from people you haven't set up a specific filter for; and the rest is labelled accordingly, e.g. with 'read @work' or 'read @home' etc.

Also, in (again) Gmail you can use +@gmail.com to recognize specific emails. Thay way you can sort e.g. myname+attn at gmail.com out easily (e.g. you could put a special on them or 'star' them). For other email providers you might tell people to put '[something]' into the subject line to make your filters label it accordingly.

 

[Scott_L_Lewis]

Concentrating, Supressing, Ignoring

I read on a Zen website a reminder that concentration is not a matter of somehow “straining” to stay on target: it is a matter of suppressing thoughts about anything else so that the only thought in your mind is the target subject.
Dave

Dave,

The essence of concentration is:
1. Being mindful of where your attention should be placed.
2. "Catching yourself" when your attention wanders.
3. Bringing the attention back to where it should be.

This is the key mental skill that is developed in the early stages of meditation.

Most people fail in concentration because they do not remain mindful of where attention should be placed. They "sink" into unmindful thinking which then "scatters" along chains of association. The Cactus Leager's use of his watch alarm to remind himself that he should be studying his CPA Exam prep materials is an example of using a physical aid to break out of sink and scatter.

I'm surprised that a Zen website would talk about supressing thoughts. Attempting to suppress (i.e., force out of awareness) an unwanted thought simply keeps attention where you do not want it to be. The same goes for berating yourself if your attention wanders; your attention becomes focused on yet another diversion.

If you think about it, you will see that a variant of this basic skill also fosters focus in action as well as thought:
1. Be mindful of what you should be doing.
2. Catch yourself when you are doing something else.
3. Resume doing what you should be doing.