Concentration Helper

Environmental & Science Education
Culture
STEM
Edward Hessler

Mrs. Hawkins, a character in Muriel Sparks' A Far Cry From Kensington, made a suggestion for those needing help with concentration.

"If you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially on some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat. Alone with the cat in the room where you work ... the cat will invariably get up on your desk and settle under the desk lamp. The light from a lamp ... gives the cat great satisfaction.  The cat will settle down and be serene, with a serenity that passes all understanding. And the tranquility of the cat will gradually come to affect you, sitting there at your desk, so that all the excitable qualities that impeded you concentration compose themselves and give your mind back the self-command it has lost. You need not watch the cat all the time. Its presence alone is enough. The effect of a cat on your concentration is remarkable, and very mysterious."

So long as the keyboard is not connected to the computer screen!

Still I like the advice.