How Do You Improve Your Concentration

English grammar of all things! There are few days in the world more beautiful than a perfect summer's afternoon in England. And there we sat, hot and bored stiff, listening to the first eleven practicing at the nets, the sound of bat on ball.

The lecturer droned on about participles, parsing, the imperfect tense and all things we could so easily have done without. It took us a few moments, but all of a sudden we were aware that he was no longer speaking English. It turned out to be fluent Arabic.

He was a popular teacher, a man of whimsy, who was usually able to keep us amused with his style of teaching. But even he was defeated by this particular day, as were we, and he knew it. But suddenly we were upright, our ears a-quiver, as the strange, exotic words rolled off his tongue. Then he stopped.

"Strange how I was able to hold your attention by speaking in a tongue of which you have no understanding. Now, perhaps, you'll do me the goodness of concentrating on your mother tongue of which most of you at any rate possess a passing knowledge." He turned back to the blackboard, a wry smile on his face.

We probably learned more about English grammar in the half hour that was left, than we'd learned in all previous lessons put together. Why was this?

We'd been shocked out of our mindless lethargy by totally unfamiliar sounds, so that when we were brought back to the subject at hand, our concentration had been perked, our lethargy had left us, and we were quite prepared to listen to the rest of the lesson.

For the achievement of anything in life, concentration is vital. So how do you improve your concentration?

Interest, of course, plays a large part. If you're studying something in which you really have no interest, then concentration on that subject is well nigh impossible. You'll be looking for excuses to duck out from under, as it were, and do other things.

First of all, you must make sure that, as far as possible, you're free from distractions. If someone's continually interrupting you, then concentration is impossible. Real concentration is a form of trance. You should be totally unaware of everything else around you, except the task at hand.

We use computers so much these days, that it's tempting to suddenly break off from what we're engaged in to check our E-mail. We checked it half an hour ago, but no matter. There might be something else that's turned up.

There's no doubt that concentration does require discipline. You make a point of checking your E-mail twice a day, at set times. The remainder of the day is spent on productive work, which will entail concentration.

After all, we used to survive perfectly well without E-mails, Twitters, Facebooks, etc. When you're working, try to forget that they exist. Check them first before you start work, so that your curiosity is satisfied, and then forget them.