Paying Attention Costs Nothing

This is the title of one of Rizen's Articles from the Good Reading section on the left. He observes how many players pay a huge buy-in fee to enter a tournament and then proceed to not give it their full attention, thus leaving money on the table. I know that i am also guilty of this because i usually play while also watching tv or browsing websites online.

While my buy-in fees are alot less than those players in his article, the principle is still the same. I know that i'm a good player when i'm focused and on my game, yet i constantly play with many distractions around me. How good can i be if i were totally focused everytime i played? what would my results be like? why can't i stay focused during tournaments?????

This article really caught my attention because just this afternoon i played a tournament where i was chip leader with about 28 left. I had about 43K chips, 2nd place had less than half that. I was also browsing several websites at this critical stage with the bubble approaching. Some how i managed to get involed in two hands that saw my stack shrink to 18k. Then i had to tighten up because of a terrible table image and two large stacks to my left. I finished 19th. Very disappointed in myself.