From Self-Development and the Way to Power, by L. W. Rogers (23)

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This matter of giving attention to the things that may properly engage
the mind, and of using the will to arouse and control it, is of very
great importance. Is it not what we call "paying attention" that makes
the connection between the ego and the objective world? Giving
attention is a process of consciousness. The person who fails in
attention misses the purpose of life and throws away valuable time and
opportunity. To give attention is to be alive and awake and in a
condition to make the most of limited physical life. Yet many people
cannot give sustained attention to an ordinary conversation nor direct
the mind with sufficient precision to state a simple fact without
wandering aimlessly about in the effort, bringing in various
incidental matters until the original subject, instead of being made
clear, is obscured in a maze of unimportant details or lost sight of
altogether.

Such habits of mind should be put resolutely aside by one who would
hasten self-development. The attention should be fixed deliberately
upon the subject in hand, whatever it may be, and nothing should be
permitted to break the connection between that and the mind. Whether
it is a conversation or a book, or a manual task, or a problem being
silently worked out intellectually, it should have undivided attention
until the mind is ready for something else.