8 times, my mind wandered off.

I don't have enough fingers to track how often my mind wanders: Can I use grains of sand on the beach instead?

interesting. I was wondering if I was before, or past the halfway mark just after I lost count for the third time, when the timer rang. time sure does get wonky with intense focus.

...waiting at the Social Security office: Simply, wholly present. Attending to the senses without judgment. Attending to the desire to wander ...faintly now...someone is calling a name...MY name!!!

correct instruction means being able to reach within 6mo max an effortless perfectly single-pointed concentration uninterrupted and unimpinged upon by external stimulus or internal distraction capable of moving you off your attended object. aka basic shamata, a kindergarten level entry into what a proper mind function's like, capable for the first time of voluntary rigorous observation and investigation into the phenomenon it seeks to understand. a complete negation of anyone functioning with folk introspection and the confusions they contain by definition.