Tips for Concentration
Selbst der intelligenteste und cleverste Mensch erlebt Momente, in denen er sich partout nicht konzentrieren oder Dinge merken kann. WILL COLDWELL hat mehrere Personen befragt, welche Tricks sie in solchen Situationen anwenden.
Learn how to focus better
Mary Beard, professor of classics at the University of Cambridge
Most of the essentials of my job come down to concentration and focus. It is not a matter of memory, but of how best to use what one has remembered. That is true if, for example, you are marking a student’s essay. It is not a question of seeing what they get wrong or right (my subject isn’t really about that, although others may be). It is about seeing what the student was trying to argue, and how they could make it better and more convincing. That sounds simple, but it requires a hell of a lot of thought. The same is true of lecturing, or writing the chapter of a book. It is all about how you can use what you know to make the most powerful case, to engage people’s interest or to show why what you want to say is important.
When it comes to techniques that help me focus, the flip answer is “one glass of wine but not two”. It’s flip, but there is a point there. Sometimes, concentration is helped by loosening up a bit (though not too much). Sometimes, it is helped by taking a break. I am not advocating laziness. But simply ploughing on, hour after hour, isn’t the most productive thing to do. As I always tell my students, more marks are lost in exams by being tired than by not knowing enough. And you have to keep your intellectual interest up. You won’t remember ideas effectively if you are not actually interested in them.
“Sometimes, concentration is helped by loosening up a bit”
Liv Boeree, poker champion and science communicator
The major test for playing good poker is to be as rational as possible. Emotions are generally the worst thing for a poker player. Whether it’s fear, excitement or anger, they all cloud your judgement because they make you motivated to come to a decision, rather than realize the truth of the situation. You’re trying to be a judge, evaluating all these bits of evidence, but if you let your emotions get in the way, you’ll start to look for things that might not be there; for example, thinking another player might be bluffing, rather than pinpointing the objective truth. Emotions can be helpful in inspiring us to want to be better, but for in-game decision-making, you want to find a way to master them and keep a cool head.
Imagine being in a big tournament. You start off with 1,000 chips, you lose a big hand and you’re down to 500. Another player then jumps up from 250 chips to 500. You’ll both be in a very different mindset even though you both have the same number of chips. So you need to find a way to mentally detach yourself from things that have happened in the past that might make you emotionally upset.
In general, if I know that I have something important coming up, the most powerful thing I can do is a bit of meditation. Even a walk in the park, where you stand barefoot — I find it makes you feel really present, just standing like a weirdo in the park for ten minutes focusing on your breath. That really sets you up well for the day, whether it’s playing poker or doing anything else.
Suzanne Bertish, actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company
Learning lines is a bore, period. For me, on stage, physicality helps. So the lines are in my body as well. When learning for a play, I tell myself I have to know these lines by such and such time. Or that I’ll get to page 20 by the end of the week, page 40 by the second week… I give myself a framework and a goal. I remember, years ago, someone telling me to put the script under my pillow. That may be a myth, but I do think learning last thing at night and first thing in the morning works. I’d say my concentration is good, but my memory is less good.
It’s important to make the distinction between learning for the long term, for a play, and cramming for the short term, like actors do for film and television. There’s a subtle difference, but for a play, you really have to get it in you. And it’s not improvisational; you have to say what’s on the page. You have to be accurate.
With live theatre, there’s always the possibility that you’re going to go blank. And it’s really, really frightening. Once, I was performing in Czechov’s The Cherry Orchard at the National Theatre and I had a speech. I knew it, I’d done it a million times, but I said the first two lines and just went blank. I didn’t have a clue what I was going to say. There was this long, long pause. It was horrific. I wanted to die in that moment — you’re so exposed. Eventually, I said, in character: “What do I say? What do I say?” and it came back to me. In those few minutes, the whole speech was just flashing through my brain. I did get back on track, but it was horrible. I don’t know why it happened. But I do believe the part of your mind that works for memory is like a muscle and the more you work it, the better it becomes.
“Memory is like a muscle and the more you work it, the better it becomes”
Lucie Green, space scientist and broadcaster
My job is quite varied as an academic. I could be writing a computer program, reading long, detailed mathematical research papers or conducting my own research. One of my most complex challenges was working on a European Space Agency mission to plan a satellite that could make more accurate forecasts for space weather.
It required having to think of lots of new things at the same time without immediately knowing what the path is to work out the answers to the questions we were facing.
I’m quite keen on physical space to give me mental space.
That’s reflected in the place I work. I work at the UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory. It’s in a Victorian mansion in the Surrey hills, so we’ve got a lot of countryside around us. I have a view of the South Downs. I like the feeling of open physical space and not feeling constrained, which helps me focus. At home, I work in the biggest room with the most light so I don’t feel boxed in.
I tend to listen to baroque music when I work. I like ordered, very definite beats in the music I listen to. That can create a soundscape that stops me getting distracted by other noises. There’s something useful about having familiar music so it doesn’t draw too much of your attention.
Robert Lordan, London cabbie and author
What really tests me on a daily basis are the anomalies that the public throw at you. Many passengers get areas and road names confused. They may use colloquial names or aren’t even entirely sure of their destination, having only a vague description to go on. In such cases, a lot of focus is required in order to ensure your fare ends up at the correct place.
But learning the Knowledge [the training course for London taxi drivers] tested my ability to focus more than anything. You’re assessed in a series of one-on-one verbal exams; I had to endure 27 of them. Now and then, an examiner will prod your temperament and so, while answering questions, they’ll try and throw you. In my own experience, this involved, among other things, having a book hurled across the room while I was speaking. They play quite a few other psychological tricks, too. When you finally become a cabbie, you quickly realize that the Knowledge examiners were in fact providing a type of simulation, preparing you for a career that is often spent thinking under pressure.
There are quite a few techniques trainee cabbies use. For me, the most practical trick was to employ acronyms and mnemonics — the most famous example being Little Apples Grow Quickly Please. That helps one recall the order of theatres on Shaftesbury Avenue (Lyric, Apollo, Gielgud, Queen’s, Palace). Very useful when you are struggling to find a place on a dark autumn evening! I’ve found the skills from the Knowledge have really helped when travelling abroad. As well as providing me with the tools to latch on to local maps and landmarks, the memory techniques I’ve acquired also provide a real boost when learning key phrases in a different language.
“At home, I work in the biggest room with the most light so I don’t feel boxed in”