Genre and place in the book. A maxim of concentration on one's own work. The principal discipline is action (to do one's own TERMappropriate act); the sustaining one is desire (not to be distracted by "the rest"). The obverse of 6.21: there, the readiness to accept correction; here, the refusal to let "the rest" pull one off one's task.

One's own work (τὸ ἐμαυτοῦ καθῆκον). "I do my own TERMappropriate act (καθῆκον); the rest does not distract (περισπᾷ) me." The centre is on one's function; whatever pulls aside is cut off not by an effort of will but by a sober estimate of what "the rest" actually is.

The classification of "the rest." The distracting is sorted into three classes, and none has any right to pull one off one's work: (1) the lifeless (ἄψυχα) — things with neither will nor design; (2) the irrational (ἄλογα) — animals; (3) the strayed and ignorant of the way (MOTIFπεπλανημένα καὶ τὴν ὁδὸν TERMἀγνοοῦντα) — people who have wandered from the road. This last class matters most: the erring sin through TERMignorance (cf. 02-01), and so deserve not vexation but pity. The image: they are aimless wanderers without a path, whereas I have a direction — my καθῆκον.

Disciplines and parallels. The principal one is action (to hold to one's duty); the secondary is desire (indifference to the distracting). Parallels: 05-01 (the morning meditation — "the work of a human being"); 06-02 (to do what is fitting, τὸ πρέπον); 02-01 (they err through TERMignorance); the image of MOTIFaimless wandering — Med. 2.7 (drift and circling, the absence of a σκοπός).