Exercise for Prolonging the Attention
Take a sheet of paper and draw a heavy square upon it. Pin this upon the wall in front of you. Gaze steadily upon the square and see how long you can keep your mind upon it. Do this several times and you can become acquainted with the period of time during which you can hold your attention without change. The knowledge of the length of this cycle can be a guide of how rapidly to introduce change as a stimulus.
Now gaze at the square again, introducing a change before your attention has wandered. Look at the square, then at the different sides, the corners and the space inside. See it in different colors, see the square frame of one color and the center of another, change the combinations. Let the center be formed of irregular shaped discs of different colors and see them change places, forming new figures. See the frame as a picture frame and with imaginary pictures in it. See the pictures change and the objects moving. Let it be a moving picture screen and imagine the pictures moving there.
Let the square be the fence of a farm, set it all laid out in fields with the buildings, the stock and all the work that is going on there. While doing this make a continual change and attend to the different details of the picture at different times.
Keep up this exercise as long as you can hold your attention without wandering. Then start again and try to prolong the period in which you can control the attention. Let the movement of the conscious attention be more rapid if necessary to hold it fixed upon the picture.
Practice with the pictures on the wall and direct your attention from one detail to another, always changing before the attention wanders, keeping it absolutely under your control.
Attention to be perfect must be directed to one thing at a time. It must be centered and not scattered. Perfect attention is a rifle, not a shotgun. You can best stimulate attention by use of one sense at a time. At the same time see to it that the other senses are relaxed and at rest.