To begin with I’ll skate around the edges, even look for things to distract me! Once I’ve forced myself to get into the problem I won’t stop for lunch, and will keep going on and on. I’m much more likely to be “in the zone” several hours in rather than at the start.

I work mainly from home, so the arrival of my wife from her work always stops me getting daft, but when I was young, single and working in an office, if I didn’t have anything in particular planned for the evening I’d just keep going, sometimes past midnight, and right through the night a couple of times.

yeah, I’ve been on projects like that too. On top of this observation, I’m going to look at some ways to increase my concentration times and try and manage myself a bit throughout the day. It’s easy for the unbridled enthusiasm to burn out.

I know, all very subjective. Its why I’m using the word observation as opposed to measurement…

What I’m doing is every hour is noting my enthusiasm and concentration levels. For example, have I been ‘In the zone’ or have I been making lots of silly mistakes. The latter suggesting lower concentration etc. Enthusiasm is a bit harder to gauge.