Up: [[Experiencing Time]] Related: [[Attention]] Created: 2024-10-11 Updated: 2026-01-25 In *Meditations for Mortals*, author Oliver Burkeman lists a few of the many “greats” in science or the arts who did their brilliant work in 3-4 hour blocks of time. Virginia Woolf wrote for 3.5 hours after breakfast. Charles Darwin wrote his theory of natural selection in two 90 minute and one 60 minute session a day. Anthony Trollope wrote for three hours before starting his day job as a British civil servant. Etcetera. Burkeman talks about intense focus using up a lot of energy and proposes it’s best to do that work in one fell swoop, during your personal peak hours, rather than staying at it half-heartedly all day long. That makes sense to me, but after learning about Walter Russell, I’m wondering if 3-4 hour blocks are 1-2 hours too long. Russell was a polymath — a painter, philosopher, writer, scientist, and mystic. He was prolific in all things, including publishing approximately thirty books. Russell was able to be productive for sixteen hours a day simply by changing up what he was doing every two hours. The open question is, how long can we maintain authentic attention? Is there a set length of time for everyone or is our ability individually determined? And if it does vary with the individual, do we have the ability to improve our attention, and does that vary with age?