The Power of Focus in Practicing: PORA!
If you have been following my blog, my column on notreble.com or read my book you have undoubtedly heard me talk about the powerful PORA process. PORA stands for Principles of Rotating Attention and is a fantastically fast and effective way to, for example:
- change unhealthy or ineffective posture habits
- remedy bad fingering habits
- fix intonation issues
- work on timing issues
- right persistent wrong notes
- get rid of fret buzz due to imprecise positioning of fingers
PORA is also super powerful if:
- you have been trying for years to get your fingers to stay close to that fretboard without success
- you have pain from too much tension when practicing
- one-finger-per-fret has been eluding you? PORA can fix it
Most powerful of all, however:
If you find yourself in a practicing rut, unable to focus, moving your fingers but not getting much payoff than burning a few calories – PORA can really turn things around.
And the best news of all is that just a few short minutes of this quite intense practice method works wonders.
Try it!
Here is a video I recorded for ISB Connect. Thank you for inviting me, Randy Kertz!
Click the still below to access the video on ISB.
Download a four step infographic here
And also check out this related episode of Talking Technique!
By the way this video is featuring my new Marleaux Consat five-string bass!
2 Replies to “Fast and addictive: the Power of Focus in Practicing”
If you want to increase your power of focus, first and foremost you must come to the realization that you are ready to win the cognitive challenges of distraction and planning. When you can’t concentrate and plan, everything you do is harder and takes longer than you’d like. You’d be frazzled and frustrated, as you’ll feel that you’re never making enough progress. It is really astounding to see how most people are finely attuned to distraction and non-planning.
Before we go deeper for the purpose of those who have not read Covey’s seminal book the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People yet, Steven Covey calls planning ‘sharpening the ax. Planning will help you to come up with something more contemporary and equally productive, Abraham Lincoln reportedly once said, “If I had 60 minutes to cut down a tree, I would spend 40 minutes sharpening the ax and 20 minutes cutting it down.” this is aimed at organising yourself and reducing anything that will compromise your output.
Good Planning reduces uncertainty, and improves productivity, in planning you have to build a plan that works best for you. Planning will help you to achieve your goal but if you fail to plan you have plan to fail according to Alan Lakein. Among the ancillary benefits of planning is clarity of purpose which propels you to remain focused in processing important task. Good planning and maximum concentration coupled with coherent prioritization goes a long way in getting things done.
Concentration is achieved by developing your powers of planning and giving attention to details, people who are focussed tries every means to abnegated themselves from all hodge-podge and are dedicated to important obligations, not minding the impediments and arduousness.
Each day, you have to do something to make your dreams come true, the constant drive to actualize your dreams and desires sometimes forces you to ask yourself, “What’s more important to me right now in actualizing my dream?” my ideology of importance is anything which is of great value in actualizing my dream. We are wrapping up another month, so it’s time to review the five months that passed and start thinking of ways to improve your focus on been productive, now the big question is: how to stay focused in this age of distractions?

Com. Adeoye Adetoyese
In a time where despite your best intentions and efforts, it can be challenging to stay on track as there are so many constant demands to your attention and everything and everyone is pulling you in different directions.
The secrets of planning and getting things done
Set a goal and frame a picture of your goal in your memory map. Create a plan for your task and get into the habit of planning your day in advance. Prioritize your task on their scale of urgency and importance. Analyze your progress on a daily basis. Prevent Procrastination. Work Smarter. Be committed: What you stay focused on will grow. – Roy T. Bennett
This article should help you to upgrade your abilities to differentiate and chose between urgent and important, good and bad, essential and necessary, for somethings are better and some are the best.
Comrd Adeoye Adetoyese is a postgraduate student of the Computer Science and Engineering Department at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) and can be reach via +2348114735242 and adeoyeadetoyese@yahoo.com
Thank you, Adeoye, for your in depth and thoughtful comment.