In this episode, the Hedgehog & the Fox talk to Dutch psychologist Stefan van der Stigchel about concentration, which he defines as ‘the action of maintaining one’s attention on a particular task for a certain period of time without becoming distracted’.
That’s an activity that has become a whole lot harder in the past three months.
Stefan’s recent book from MIT Press is called Concentration: Staying Focused in Times of Distraction, though I doubt he could have guessed when he wrote it just how distracting our times could become.
Read his book and you will have a much better understanding of how concentration works and why it’s so hard to maintain – you’ll also be aware that there are no quick fixes, no magic recipes for enhancing your concentration, but there are, as you’ll hear, practical and effective things you can do to improve it. And along the way, Stefan busts some persistent myths about concentration.
In our conversation, we touched on whether music helps concentration or hinders it; how to increase the chances an audience will listen to you; and the function of daydreaming and why it doesn’t necessarily make us happier. But when I spoke to Stefan in mid-April with the Netherlands already one month in to lockdown measures, I wanted to know first how he was coping with life in this new reality