“Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short, in all the management of human affairs.”                      —-Ralph Waldo Emerson

For six weeks this past summer vacation, I worked as a tutor for twelve 7^th grade children who all wanted to attend my alma mater: Brooklyn Tech. They were spending their summer learning the requisite math and reading skills necessary to pass Tech’s entrance exam, and that’s where I came in—primarily as the group’s resident math guru. The topics we went over ranged from ordinary fractions and their use in solving problems involving proportions and ratios to solving (and using) one-independent-variable, algebraic, linear equations. Of course, none of these topics seemed terribly difficult from my vantage point, but regardless of our differing stations in life, I truly believed that all 12, or at least 11, of these students were capable of learning the subjects over the course of the summer program. Unfortunately, the rate of successful mastering of the material was nowhere near as high as 11 out of 12. In my admittedly subjective reasoning, the dismal levels of gained proficiency over the weeks come from one repeating, commonly-themed scene in all its variations. The class might sit down to work on a problem set when one child thinks it’s necessary to ask for the 5^th time why we must do any practice, another child seizes the opportunity to mimic the voice and mannerisms of an older Caribbean teacher who might answer the first child’s inquiry, and then much of the remaining children who were working join in on the parody. The essential problem is that many of the kids at the tutoring center suffered from a lack of focus. I share the same deficiency.

As I look forward to this upcoming semester and all that is necessary to do well in my classes, ace the GREs, test out of psych stats, and craft great grad school applications, I see that the rate limiting step is not gaining knowledge, getting smarter, or anything so profound (or vague). Paralleling my experience with my summer kids, I see that there is no such thing as smart people, only those who can focus and those who cannot… Therefore, the crux of the matter is simply adding focus to my work efforts. If I’m successful in that step, then I will be able to finish everything without unbearable pressures and anxiety, with a consistent good night’s sleep, and with better papers/projects/tests etc. I’m aware that attempting to minimize or even eliminate the wasting of time is hard, and only serves to shift the hard work from the academic work itself to the mental gymnastics done to complete it. However, that’s the way it should be. This series of posts will track how well I am doing in my efforts to achieve maximum focus over the course of each day, week, and month because as school assignments are doled out and handed in, I’ll probably only miss a post if I haven’t been able to focus and have wasted time. So far I’ve started off poorly, but at least I’ve started. Follow me.