Ruth Rendell Quotes

My biggest hurdle usually has to do with concentration. I have a tendency to kind of start working on something, and then, all of a sudden, I'll totally divert and do something totally different.

I find it so easy to get distracted - I try not to do more than one thing at any one time.

When you think you're listening to several conversations at once, they tell me, you may really simply be time sharing - that is, listening a little bit to this one, a little bit to that one.

I find that I can't work and listen to radio - either I find I don't like it and it distracts me, or I do like it and I want to listen to it.

I laugh and joke, but I don't get distracted very easily.

Still, I tune out the visual input when it is too distracting, mainly in conversations.

I write slowly and get distracted a lot.

I feel like saying we need to all calm down a little. Let's take the time to breathe. I have no intention of allowing myself be distracted.

I sometimes got distracted easily and allowed my mind to wander when I needed to be focused. It's quite subtle, really, and just being aware of it helps.

These days you're not just competing with the tedium, you're competing with the cellphone.

I don't mind being distracted. I don't want to sit there in utter silence and type. If the phone rings, I usually answer it, speak for a few minutes and return to writing, or go for a walk in and out of the rooms. I don't mind a break.

There are different usage patterns - I never do email during the day. I don't multitask well at all. I don't know how to be in a meeting and participate and be on email at the same time. I do see some people do it more effectively. I've never quite figured that out.

Working in an office with an array of electronic devices is like trying to get something done at home with half a dozen small children around. The calls for attention are constant.

While you're writing, you can't concentrate nearly as well on what the speaker is saying.

I get a lot of kids distracted. Sometimes they got to go cover left field, but they're over here talking to me, getting an autograph.

It's hard to watch something go on and be talking at the same time.

No good work is ever done while the heart is hot and anxious and fretted.

A lot of actors, they know the camera's there, and if somebody moves around or makes noise or whatever then they get all distracted, but I pretty much lock in. You can't distract me too much.

If you try to multitask in the classic sense of doing two things at once, what you end up doing is quasi-tasking. It's like being with children. You have to give it your full attention for however much time you have, and then you have to give something else your full attention.

We've lost the ability to immerse ourselves in things.

I can't do too much of one thing, or I get very distracted.

You don't win games by being aggressive. You win by being relaxed.

Whatever I'm doing at that moment, I try to only focus on that because I'm already ADD.

I have a short attention span. And when I'm in the middle of one thing, I'm then drawn to the next thing.

When you let go of your attention for a little while, do not think you may recover it whenever you please.