Few months ago for some reason Mayank wrote a post about stretching. After the initial amazement from the unusual post and the video there (I just wish all of the presenters were women :)) my thoughts began to swirl. There are many tutorials that can teach a beginner how to write a good blog post but there are also few important things about writing that even the experienced bloggers seem to forget.
Attention span
Is the amount of time a person is able to stay focused on a certain task without becoming restless. According to Wikipedia the estimates for the length of human attention span range from 3 to 5 minutes per year of age in young children, to a maximum of around 20 minutes in adults. Combining what we already know about attention span and how the human mind works, I suggest that writing process should be punctuated with periodic activities. Your hippocampus will fill up after about 20 minutes and needs a break to regroup and store the information. So every 20 minutes take a short break, let’s say 5 minutes. During your break, try to move your body a little and fully relax your mind, try to think about something else. These breaks not only do not decrease your productivity, but enhance it.
Here is a good way to make the process of writing work for you:
-Write in spurts. Write for about a 15-20 minutes, than take a two to five minute break from it.
-During your break stand up from your chair, move your body, stretch and relax your mind.
-Really turn your mind on full for each of the spurts. Get the most of it. Be active, involved, and thinking.
Make your mind work for you, don’t work against it.
Have a pleasant stretch Mak! :)
Hi Igor
I think I have the attention span of a 3 year old zzzzzz….
Sorry where was i ;)
hahaha, nice one! For me I write for about an hour but that hour consists of thinking and writing. Stretching works, it really does, doesn’t make me bored from sitting the whole time.