{"id":648,"date":"2026-07-03T10:30:46","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T09:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/daniel.hepper.net\/blog\/?p=648"},"modified":"2026-07-03T10:30:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T09:30:46","slug":"fixing-my-focus-by-staring-at-a-wall-for-30-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/daniel.hepper.net\/blog\/2026\/07\/fixing-my-focus-by-staring-at-a-wall-for-30-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Fixing My Focus by Staring at a Wall for 30 Days"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To reverse my devolution from Homo Sapiens Sapiens<\/em> into a Homo Distractus<\/em>1<\/sup>, I’m going to run a little experiment: I’m going to stare at a point on a white wall for an hour every day for 30 days2<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The setup is simple: mark a dot on the wall3<\/sup>, set a kitchen timer for 60 minutes, and sit down. To make things a bit more interesting, I placed the kitchen timer behind me.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Me<\/a>
My setup. Not visible is the protagonist of the show, the dot I marked on the door in front of me.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

I just had my first session, and let me tell you: 60 minutes can feel very long, especially when you don’t know when they are over. I tried to sit as still as possible, but I had to change my posture a couple of times. This is supposed to be primarily a mental challenge, not a physical one. I also tried my best not to fidget around and avoided scratching any itches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When my mind wasn’t busy digging up memories of deranged posts I read on 4chan decades ago, the point started dancing around in front of my eyes. Sometimes, the point would split into two, before I managed regain my focus. Sounds of playing children finding their way to my ears from a nearby playground were a welcome distraction. At some point, a heavy drowsiness fell over me, and simply keeping my eyes open became difficult enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A beep from my kitchen timer one minute before the time was up sent a tingling sensation through my whole body. Afterwards, I did not succumb to the temptation to crawl into bed and embrace that drowsiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, I followed another thought that had crossed my mind: to document the experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foot notes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

1<\/sup> I did come up with this term during the session, but apparently I wasn’t the first one, because a book<\/a> with this title crowdfunded and published in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2<\/sup> I’m signed up for a Backyard Ultra on July 31st, will be the final day of this challenge. Let’s see if this practice gives me energy or drains it. If it’s the latter, I might cut the experiment one day short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3<\/sup> The attentive observer will notice that I’m actually looking at a door, but you get the idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To reverse my devolution from Homo Sapiens Sapiens into a Homo Distractus1, I’m going to run a little experiment: I’m going to stare at a point on a white wall for an hour every day for 30 days2. The setup … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/daniel.hepper.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/daniel.hepper.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/daniel.hepper.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daniel.hepper.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daniel.hepper.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/daniel.hepper.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":650,"href":"https:\/\/daniel.hepper.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648\/revisions\/650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/daniel.hepper.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daniel.hepper.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daniel.hepper.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}