Evening star., 1928-04-06
Types of Concentration.

Concentration applies to many ways
of the mind. Attention lets IN and
1t shuts out. II your mental gates are
always ajar, you are like the child,
easily distracted. You can't help let
ting in much that you would like to
shut out; but, unlike the child, you
really want to shut 1t out. The gates
of the mind are the special senses and
the general stream of bodily feelings OF
comfort and discomfort.
You can't concentrate II your tooth
Is aching, or your shoe Is pinchlng. or
you are chilly or hungry, or the verlti-
lation is bad. Work assumes freedom
from these body distractions. Nor are
we often distracted by tastes or odors.
There remain, then, sights and sounds.
1t is usually easy to shut out d1stracting
sights, just as 1t Is easy to turn out
the light and close the eyelids when you
want to go to sleep. But you have no
way of shutting your ears except the
mental way of not listening.
Noises are the greatest diStractors.
A rackety factory, clicking Office, a
madly bustling department store, a
shouting quick-lunch counter. all on
streets deafeningly noisy with clang-
ing. footing, rumbling trafic-are as
distracting to an individuals work as
the sounds are wearing to his nerves.
Yet what can't be cured must be en-
dured. Your first lesson in concentra-
ton is to shut out sense distraction II
you can, disregard it If you must.
The most persistently distracting
noises are those carrying meaning. It
is harder to work with others talking
in the room than with the hum OF a
machine. Is harder not to try to listen
For really concentrated work you want
to be alone. But privacy and quiet are
the most expensive luxuries of modern
life. Buy them II you can; endure their
absence II you must
A greater source of distraction comes
from inside you. One part of your mind
your head are other ideas and inter-
ests; you want to be doing other things;
you have worries and hopes and disap-
pointments on your mind. It's easier
to say: Forget them" than to do it
Or one little thing goes wrong, and the
day is completely spoiled. So the dis
traction of other interests and your In
side emotional distractions interfere
with the concentration on your work.
1t is In the nature Of the work and
! the demands it makes that we meet
the various types of concentration
Greatest contrast in type Is found be-
tween the wide-angled and the mar
row-angled. The former has eyes and
| ears everywhere; the latter focuses or
one small area alone. A good hostess
at dinner table hears and sees every.
thing, notices whether courses are prop
erly served. which guests are inter.
ested or even fiirtatious. who is bored
| who is sighted. And the walters have
pretty wide-angled attention, too. tc
their part of the dinner. Floor walkers
seem to do nothing in particular. but
they are observing much in general. A
surgeon must be capable of intense con-
centration and have assistants and
nurses equally concentrated on their
part of the operation
Vacations differ widely In their de-
mandS on one or the other type OF
concentration We do well to choose
calling that suits our preferred type
There are, however. so many occupa-
tions and situations in our daily lives
which call now for one and now for the
other type of attention that we must