How well can you concentrate

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you know, when working and stuff. Are you easily distracted by what's going on around you?

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 09:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Depends what I'm doi.....oooh, look! A blue car!

― SittingPretty (sittingpretty), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 09:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Really easily distracted, it's always hard to get work done, impossible unless there's a tiny time space to work with.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 10:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm much better than I used to be at concentrating, but I'm not sure why. The frustrating thing is, whilst speculation abt how one's life might have turned out is always a pretty haphazard thing, I can't help thinking that I would have progressed more in my career if I was better at concentrating when I was younger. When I first started working in offices I would be distracted from what I was doing by other ppl's conversations, noise outside and so on. It really brought it home to me how I'd changed when someone came up to my desk and was standing by my desk saying my name for abt a minute before I realised he was there, so engrossed was I in what I was doing on my computer....

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 10:10 (twenty-three years ago)

...which wasn't looking at ILX, btw!

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 10:10 (twenty-three years ago)

I have the shortest attention span in the world, really really bad. A job has to be either incredibly interesting or needing me to focus so much it nearly hurts if I am not to be distracted. I need to do something about this too, it's a bad thing.

― chris (chris), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 10:12 (twenty-three years ago)

i concentrate well under force and pressure. otherwise i prefer to daydream.

― di smith (lucylurex), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 10:16 (twenty-three years ago)

I am shit at concentrating and you're all to blame.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 10:24 (twenty-three years ago)

stop balming the victims.

― di smith (lucylurex), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 10:29 (twenty-three years ago)

What was the question?

― kate, Wednesday, 15 January 2003 10:30 (twenty-three years ago)

school and uni did nothing to help me concentrate and it wasn't until I was in the workplace that I realised that this was a problem. I think I always daydreamed and allowed my attention to wander whilst in the education system, but always gained enough from it to get reasonably good marks and pass exams. The fact that paid work requires concentration all the time was my undoing at first. I remember one manager giving me grief about not being able to follow the instructions he'd given me. It's really hard to know how much I have trained myself to think in a different way, how much is due to the fact I might be doing work which is more interesting (this is undoubtably true, but it still involves the repetition and mundane tasks which I couldn't cope with in years gone by) and how much is due to subconscious changes in my brain....I feel as though I might be a less creative person than my teenage or early-20s self.

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 10:31 (twenty-three years ago)

i'm so rub at concentrating that MarkH's post there looks like the most daunting thing ever.

― michael wells (michael w.), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 10:43 (twenty-three years ago)

Sometimes, I can really get "in the zone" and get things done, read, written etc. But, unfortunately I have no idea how to tap into this status, and am usually easily distracted/bored/disgruntled.

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 15:04 (twenty-three years ago)

regarding me being oblivious to my colleague's presence above, I remember being in the same situation, but reversed (ie, trying to get someone's attention) abt six years ago and finding it difficult to believe that it was possible to be that engrossed in something.

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 15:08 (twenty-three years ago)

I can usually do it when I want to, but depression sometimes greatly disrupts my ability to focus for any length of time at all.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 19:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Im a ADD child, and adult....so not very well.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 19:09 (twenty-three years ago)

my concentration ability is determined by the level of interest i have in the subject or task at hand. if i like it, the universe could implode and i would be totally unaware of it.
well i would be dead, yeah.

― donna (donna), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 19:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Not well, myself - what does one do about it? I am realizing that trying to write graduate level papers while trying to deal with (possible) ADD was not a good idea. There must be something that will help ! Right ?

― daria g, Wednesday, 15 January 2003 19:59 (twenty-three years ago)

RITALIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

― Chris V. (Chris V), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 20:01 (twenty-three years ago)

http://www.adhdsandiego.org/images/AttentionDeficitDisorder.gif

― Man (amateurist), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 20:05 (twenty-three years ago)

I concentrate very well at work - on ILE!!!

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 20:07 (twenty-three years ago)

lesson 1 from a how-to book on concentration I borrowed once:

put a post stamp on your forhead and take a walk. try not to notice ppl staring at you.

― erik, Wednesday, 15 January 2003 20:53 (twenty-three years ago)

when I want I can. but i need to be under pressure as well.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 22:02 (twenty-three years ago)

I zone out all the time, only to wake up 50 minutes later without a clue as to what's going on

― Curtis Stephens, Wednesday, 15 January 2003 22:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Do you drive, Curtis?

― Amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 22:05 (twenty-three years ago)

I can concetrate extremely well given sufficient stimulation. I was an ADD kid and have some holdover attributes, but I have no trouble sitting down and working on a given task for five hours without noticing much else going on. I test extremely well and I'm quite good at my job since I can learn as fast as anybody I know and have excellent recall, all of which I think I developed as a consequence of having ADD.

On the other hand, I'm shit at driving distances, esp. with the radio on. Whenever I'm driving somewhere unfamiliar I try to remind myself to turn off the stereo so that I can focus on streetsigns/directions etc. Even then I still usually fuck up, but I blame Maryland/DC's horrendous system of roads.

― Tom Millar (Millar), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 23:42 (twenty-three years ago)

It's hard for me to concentrate on things I like even, I used to be able to sit and read all day straight and now I need to get up and move around after an hour or so.

― Maria (Maria), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 23:46 (twenty-three years ago)

at work, i can concentrate really well if i'm programming or designing, i can pretty much zone distractions out. the only time i have trouble is if someone is standing looking over my shoulder.

in non-work situations though, i'm easily distracted and daydream A LOT.

― sand.y, Thursday, 16 January 2003 00:10 (twenty-three years ago)

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