Help me focus
 

I sometimes have difficulty concentrating my energy for extended periods of time. This applies both to single tasks and recurring tasks. For a hypothetical example, let's say I want to make the bed every day. The first day I will make an outstanding bed. Several days later, I wil start making the bed, then wander off and start the crossword puzzle. Several days later, I will not make the bed.

I do not care to hear about medical solutions; this is not a medical problem. In fact, it is not really a problem at all. I have recently raised my ambitions for the second 2/3 or more of my life, and would appreciate some advice on how to maximize my skills/talents.

What I have come up with so far is little notes to myself, with specific and abstract bits of advice: "Keep your eye on the prize," "wake up early," "listen," "concentrate," etc. I think this has actually had some impact. Any other suggestions would be welcomed.

Thanks in advance.

What do you want me to help you with again? ;)

Tie a string around your penis to remind you.

By the way, this is not a parody thread, but the Patriots are better than your favorite football team.

As a Pats fan that statement just blew my mind.

Even if you are a pats fan it is still a true statement. It's like trying to understand the Holy Trinity.

Have I threadjacked my own thread? Please somebody help me.

I in agreement that this is likely not a medical problem. However, if you don't see it as a problem at all, why should you want to change?

I don't think I'm trying to change; I think I want to improve myself. This is like asking people for their workout tips, only what I'm looking for is mental workout tips.

How is improving yourself different from changing? Ambivalence is among the biggest obstacles to any meaningful change.

Dunno if I could offer too much in the way of suggestions, all I can say is you just have to remember to keep your eye on the prize, wake up early, listen, and concentrate. Do those things and you'll be well on your way to becoming a little champion.

So, is this something that can be improved via counseling? I have a similar problem--I can be hyper-focused and will do all that is necessary (pull long hours/all-nighters etc) to get my work done if I'm under the gun, but when the pressure is off, I get pretty lazy. I've always been a big procrastinator and college/grad school magnified my bad habits. Somehow, 5 or 6 years of doing highly analytic client-focused work never did cure me of it. Like st.cronin, I suspect that my inefficiency is preventing me from maximizing my potential...

MAKE YOUR FRIGGIN' BED, YOU LAZY SACK!!!!!!!!!!!

(did that help?)

I think counseling could be very helpful, if you really want to change.

You need tattoos, like Memento.

Stop posting on message boards

Jeez, Cronin, you spend all year reading great books and you come to us idiots for advice?

I don't sleep under the covers. That's how I make the bed (it doesn't become unmade) :D

f making the bed in the morning. make it right before you go to bed. that's the nuts right there.

Either hire a maid or a drill sergeant.

Get married, your wife will remind you all the time when you forget to do the bed, to put your clothes in the wardrove etc. It really helps.

Icy is wise. A wife definetely helps you see your faults.

I heard that if you to something for 21 days in a row, it becomes habit.

I guess they're not different, when you put it that way. I was just leery of this turning into a discussion about ADD or medications or something. I'm merely interested if anybody else has techniques for staying focused and succeeding they'd like to share with me.

I am decidedly NOT ambivalent about this. I am tired of suspecting that I'm wasting my talents; I want now (and for the remainder of my existence) to maximize them.

You want to learn how to stop wasting your talents now (and for the remainder of your existence) maximize them? Well, my friend, I have just the book for you. . .

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/157...Fencoding=UTF8

If you don't friggin concentrate and fail to get it right, I'm coming to your house and repeatedly kick you in the groin.

Maybe that's what happens to hookers.

Leave me out of this!

I am for hire.

Sounds to me like you're looking for a way to keep focused on certain tasks. If that's the case, many people seem to be "swearing by" the "Getting Things Done" notion, recently popularized by David Allen, though certainly there are others who preach the same thing and don't make nearly as much money as he's made.

David Allen's book (which I haven't read so I really can't say anything about its content other than people I know swear by it) is at Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/014...Fencoding=UTF8

For what it's worth, this sounds a bit like my personal goal of keeping better track of what I need to do and when I need to do it (especially at work), for which I've resolved to start writing all my to do tasks in my Palm...a small step, but it goes a long way to actually doing things (and helping organize priorities).

/tk

St. C., this isn't by any means a full solution, but more along the lines of a technique that might be helpful in certain situations (figuring that any tool that works is potentially useful here).

I've found that breaking larger tasks down to smaller, incremental tasks often helps me with focus. Probably some combination of the feeling of accomplishment (i.e. reward) being more frequent and the task becoming less daunting and/or tedious.

Similarly, when practical and/or needed, I will attach rewards to completion of certain components of a task. Case in point was a recent weekend that I had a lot of very reptitive work to do. I was really more interested in playing another season of Second & Ten football, and I had no firm deadline beyond "by the end of the weekend" so I broke the work up into 16 pieces & allowed myself to play one game of SAT after each piece was done.

These are a couple of things that I've done for years & continue to find useful when the task at hand lends itself toward the method (obviously it might work less well on something like your making the bed example, simply because it's too short term a task to break down into smaller components easily).

That is exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for. Thanks!

I don't say this often enough, but I love you.