Chris, you are very right. And I think the thing I do need to be doing right now is putting aside a time each day where (a) I am concentrating on one thing and one thing only and (b) not jumping up to do things that can be done at another time (like the laundry).

I probably also need to extend it to not simulataneously grading and trying to look up notes for my next class on the computer, or surfing the web while I look over my handwritten notes for the next class. I probably need to get back into forcing myself into the mode of "one thing at a time."

When I did my half-hour's reading yesterday afternoon, I realized when I got up from it that I felt less tired than I had before - sort of a combination of feeling like I had got up and jogged around the block a couple times, mixed with a sense that I had been "away" for a little bit - that I hadn't been focusing on what I "must do now" but rather focusing on something more outside of time, if that makes sense.

I think it's too early to tell for sure, but I think it's good for me, and I hope I can have the willpower to continue it after this "experiment" is over. (Surely there are enough good spiritually-oriented books out there that I won't "run out" reading on one for 1/2 hour each day? Or if I do "run out," I can go back and re-read.)