![]() ![]() What other practice trains the attention of the a wandering mind to settle on an object of focus? The practice other comments have touched on - the increasingly prevalent but ancient discipline of meditation. But cutting off technology or other such sources of stimuli trains the attention of an otherwise wandering mind to settle on the object of focus (baseball). Hence, baseball spectating would accentuated the craving to seek out novel stimulus. A baseball game has a slower pace and more sporadic action than an action-filled flick. □ ReplyĮven when watching something as action-packed as “Spartacus” on Netflix, I find myself reaching for my phone to seek out novel stimuli (and the accompanying dopamine dripped we’ve discussed on this blog). My main problem is staying awake through those exercises, so I use them at bed time. Other than that, I would strongly recommend mindfulness practices, see Jon Kabat-Zinn. ![]() ![]() I would rather shoot some balls at the basket to get my mind to diffused mode rather than watching an NBA game.Īt my alma mater, there is opportunity to play basketball almost every day, even for hobbyist players like myself, so you don’t have to be on the team. I prefer doing sports over watching sports anyway. I once watched a game live and on TV, and the game is so excruciatingly boring that I don’t think this tip would work for me. I suppose one has to be really into baseball. Unfortunately, I can’t find the time to do that often enough, because it involves at least half a day of travel back and forth. I find myself extraordinarily relaxed when coming back from a rowing trip from a lake. Rowing is technically very challenging and requires total focus, or you’ll capsize and find yourself swimming. I have this experience when rowing on a lake. But my disappointment with the quote is at the beginning, “Baseball is a bunch of thinking.” God forbid that some thinking break out while trying to spectate. Football can also be much slower and longer then baseball in most instances. Football has many of the set breaks and by-design turns just like baseball and can be another opportunity for developing listening skills. I disagree with the person quoted in the article. ![]() Listening to a baseball game also requires other skill sets like visualizing the situation through what the broadcaster is telling you and creating a mental model of the game allowing the listener to anticipate what moves the teams will be trying to make in the game. I find listening to baseball games to be great training for being a good listener in the lecture setting and for being mindful in other listening scenarios. Just like reading demands cognitive skills, so does listening. I am suggesting, however, that if you take deep work seriously, it’s worth having some rituals outside your professional life that help you practice the states of mind it requires.Īlthough I think your findings are a bit anecdotal, I agree with your conclusion. I’m not suggesting that everyone become baseball fans. Listening to a ballgame, in other words, becomes excellent training for reaching and maintaining the deep mental states that produces things that matter. If I stick with it, however, my mind eventually downshifts - quieting the noisy neuronal clamoring for easy entertainment, and leaving instead an unencumbered attention of a type that I often seek in my work. My experience is that the slowness of the games, combined with the lack of visual stimuli, can be, at first, excruciating. When listening, I maintain a strict “no technology” rule - no phones, no iPads, no other source of electronic distraction (I do allow myself to read during commercial breaks). In particular, I try to listen to at least one baseball game per week on the radio (we don’t have cable, and I can’t stream local coverage, so there’s no other way for me to legally catch the games). Baseball, undoubtedly, is a slow sport: even more so for spectators than the players.īut while this might be bad news for those hoping to attract the allegiance of the iPhone generation, I’ve found it to be quite useful in my own quest to sharpen my deep work skills. In basketball and football, you live in the moment. Here’s an articulate 15-year old, as quoted in the article, explaining his reasons for quitting baseball:īaseball is a bunch of thinking, and I live a different lifestyle than baseball. There are various reasons for this decline, but the story emphasized the sport’s lack of action. Last week, the Washington Post featured a front page story about the declining number of kids who play organized baseball. ![]()
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