"Now in the case of study, a great part of our fatigue often arises, not from those mental efforts by which we obtain the mastery of the subject, but from those which are spent in recalling our wandering thoughts; and these efforts of attention would be much less fatiguing if the disturbing force of mental distraction could be removed."
January 1, 1970
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Scientific_Papers_of_James_Clerk_Maxwell