If you have less ability to concentrate these days, like me and many others, you might be interested in checking out a new way of focusing your time and thinking called the Pomodoro Technique. I read about it online and have already become hooked, complete with an iphone app that features a pomodoro. The name “pomodoro” comes from the Italian word for tomato, which was used by the Italian guy who invented this technique using a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato.
You actually use a kitchen timer, or a smartphone version, in 25 minute increments, with 5 minute breaks in between, to rather rigidly concentrate your work or thinking on one thing and one thing only. All of the methods of the Pomodoro Technique are based on scientific research about how the mind works and learns best. Wish I’d had this in college.
It makes the challenge of concentrating fun, and you can get a lot more done in a day as a result. This is becoming a worldwide “phenomenon,” not that that makes it any better, but it indicates how more and more people of all ages are finding it genuinely valuable and “natural” in its fit.
Here’s a link to a PDF that explains it in detail if you want to check it out. Come back and leave a comment if you find it useful.