With my almost five-year-old grandson visiting us for the past month, I have found it difficult to find a window of time to write.
What I have been able to do, though, is observe him and work with him.
This time together has given me another vantage point from which to see the power of uninterrupted work time.
Summer has long been a cherished season for me. When I was in school, each summer sunrise seemed like an opening into a new adventure. I was never sure what might happen that day, but somehow I understood that I had the time to do the things I wanted to do: taking long early morning walks, spending the day at the pool, reading, hanging out with friends, and cooking.
That is the key to an uninterrupted work period: having the time to do the things you want to do, with no other agenda to follow.
Research, along with my own experience, shows that as the amount of time a person can focus on an activity increases, we see a deepening and strengthening not only of concentration but also of other important qualities. People are able to complete more complex tasks, show greater confidence in choosing activities, persist when encountering difficulties, produce higher-quality work, and develop a stronger sense of competence.
During the first week with my grandson, he wanted me to do every activity with him. He chose the activity, but I was involved at some level—cutting out a difficult project piece, reading him a book, or helping him with a puzzle.
Perhaps I should add that we had nowhere we needed to be at a certain time. Instead of following a schedule, we simply focused on doing “what comes next.”
By the second week, he was working mostly independently on his projects, which consisted primarily of his own designs made from cardboard boxes, air-dry clay, paper, scissors, glue, and found objects.
Each day I could see that his designs were becoming more complex and required a longer time to complete. As the projects grew in length and complexity, I saw a sense of satisfaction and good humor emerge. Each success led to greater challenges, and those greater challenges were met with persistence.
By the third week, the reading and writing activities he had been avoiding—telling me they were too hard—were now being chosen and completed with enthusiasm.
By the fourth week, he was working on his various projects for 90 minutes or more at a stretch, occasionally asking for help when he needed another pair of hands for gluing or another difficult task.
The change in his concentration and independence over those four weeks was remarkable. Being able to observe that growth so closely was a real gift to this grandmother. In all my years of working with children, I had never before had the opportunity to witness it in such an intimate way.
Offering our children—and ourselves—uninterrupted time to engage in self-selected work is a game changer. This is something I have known and taught for many years, not only to Montessori parents and teachers but also in corporate workshops.
Giving ourselves and our coworkers a three-hour block of time each day to do their work—uninterrupted by meetings, phone calls, or casual conversations—creates profound change, not only in the individual but also in everyone around them.
Maria Montessori observed that when children are given the conditions they need for healthy development, a remarkable transformation occurs. She called this process normalization—not becoming “normal,” but becoming fully oneself. It is marked by four characteristics that consistently emerge:
- Love of work
- Concentration
- Self-discipline
- Sociability expressed through joyful work, mutual aid, and cooperation
The clearest sign that we—children and adults alike—are making progress in our lives is joyful work.
That is the gift of uninterrupted time.
Joyful work.
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