{"id":1639,"date":"2014-03-20T01:01:13","date_gmt":"2014-03-20T06:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/?p=1639"},"modified":"2014-02-26T09:08:54","modified_gmt":"2014-02-26T14:08:54","slug":"how-to-concentrate-all-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/2014\/03\/how-to-concentrate-all-day\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Concentrate All Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Dwayne Phillips<\/p>\n

Focusing for a long period of time is contradictory, but it is possible.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Graduate school in 1983 (yes, I am that old): I had to study a text on a new concept called object-oriented software. I don’t mean read<\/em> the text, I mean read it, study it, master it. I faced a ten-hour day.<\/p>\n

My process:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. study the text for 50 minutes at the dining-room table<\/li>\n
  2. sit in the Lazy Boy recliner under the wall clock and close my eyes<\/li>\n
  3. the clock chimed at the hour (sometimes waking me)<\/li>\n
  4. back to step 1<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This worked. Periods of intense effort, a.k.a., focus followed by periods of rest.<\/p>\n

    I still use this process in writing. I set a timer for 25 minutes. I put the timer out of sight and write as fast as I can. When the timer rings, I take five minutes to walk about and stretch my back, neck, arms, hands, etc. Using this process, I can write for hours at a rate of at least 1,400 words an hour. (Some people tell me that is an extremely high rate, but given I use this process it seems normal to me.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    by Dwayne Phillips Focusing for a long period of time is contradictory, but it is possible. Graduate school in 1983 (yes, I am that old): I had to study a text on a new concept called object-oriented software. I don’t mean read the text, I mean read it, study it, master it. I faced a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,5],"tags":[187,128],"class_list":["post-1639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-work","category-writing","tag-work","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1639"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1640,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639\/revisions\/1640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}