Experimenting With My Attention Span
By Jason Gaspero

Lately, I’ve been experimenting with my attention span.

Yes, I know this sounds a little bizarre, but I’m 100% serious about this. Hear me out.

You see, I read a lot. A LOT. And sometimes I feel I go “over the limit” when I’m reading. Maybe you have at times, too.

Tell me if this sounds familiar:

• You buy the latest, greatest “how to” book and can’t wait to read it…
• You want to finish the entire book in one sitting…
• You dive right in… eager to learn as much as you can…
• You eventually start daydreaming about other stuff… WHILE YOU’RE STILL READING THE DAMN BOOK!

Maybe I’m just a freak. I don’t know. But I do know that if I try to read too much in one sitting, my mind will wander. It’s just how I am.

So last night, I tried something different.

Instead of reading any given book for 60 minutes straight with no interruptions, like I've been doing for quite some time, I cut my reading down to 20 minutes per book. And in those 20 minutes, I really gave it 100%. I focused. I concentrated. I scribbled notes in the margins. I gave it my all.

And at the end of those 20 minutes… DONE! No more reading of that particular book. Yes, I felt like I could’ve kept reading the same book more, but my mind never wandered once. I also felt like I got a whole lot more out of the process. In fact, I did this with six different books last night… and felt like I got the same reading and learning experience after each book.

I’m going to give this a try for a while and see how it pans out. It looks good so far.