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Ask HN: High Focus Activities

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Re: Ask HN: High Focus Activities

#12

Post by lurkingllama »

I highly recommend long-distance running and lifting. Not only do both activities require complete focus (at a high enough intensity) but they also lead to lower overall levels of anxiety throughout the rest of the day. After increasing my physical health, I've been shocked to see how much it's also improved my mental state.

Re: Ask HN: High Focus Activities

#13

Post by sophyphreak »

Cooking while following a recipe doesn't necessarily require consistent focus over a long period, but to get it right, it does require a good deal of focus. More complicated and unfamiliar recipes require more focus.

On the mindfulness/meditation side, there's a lot more out there than what secular groups like the field of psychology can provide. Consider looking for meditation groups and Buddhist religious organizations in your local area.

Also, there are also a billion podcasts and YouTube videos. Some people I know like Thanissaro Bhikku who is outside San Diego. Others are passionate about Ajahn Brahm near Brisbane, Austrialia, or potentially Bhikku Sujato in the same tradition. Some people really like Empty Cloud's stuff in New Jersey. But I'm a fan of Ajahn Sona in British Columbia. Ajahn Jayanto's Dhamma talks, which you can find on the Temple Forest Monastery website, are another favorite of mine.

Among mindfulness meditation, there are the cardinal body scanning and breath awareness meditations, but samadhi meditation is also awesome--Ajahn Sona is probably the best place to learn about this. Chanting is another meditation--adjacent thing that requires concentration. The Metta Sutta in English, Amaravati translation, is a great place to start.

Good luck! I wish you all the best!

Re: Ask HN: High Focus Activities

#15

Post by Yawrehto »

Puzzles - not necessarily jigsaw, but more logic-puzzle types.

Building something.

And I tend to have intense focus if it's 'compiling exhaustive and thorough analyses debunking someone's point in a minor statement they made a week ago that they weren't even thinking about', but that might be me. (One time I spent probably hours carefully trying to figure out the likelihood that an immigrant comes from a country with higher vaccination rates than the US - something around 1/3 if I recall correctly - and then remembered that the US requires vaccinations for all legal immigrants and as undocumented immigrants aren't the majority of immigrants - yes, I did research on that - if you worry about unvaccinated people, you have more to worry about from native-born Americans than immigrants. I did this in response to a passing comment somewhere about how immigrants were bringing disease or something.)

In a similar vein as the previous one, researching a subject you find fun. I remember being like twelve and writing a 20-page paper on Jewish mobsters and the Jewish community and if I recall correctly the 'upper upper' limit was 12. Again: possibly (definitely) just me.

Re: Ask HN: High Focus Activities

#16

Post by tra3 »

lurkingllama wrote: post #12

I highly recommend long-distance running and lifting. Not only do both activities require complete focus (at a high enough intensity) but they also lead to lower overall levels of anxiety throughout the rest of the day. After increasing my physical health, I've been shocked to see how much it's also improved my mental state.

I’m glad this comment is near the top.

We were not evolutionary designed to sit in front of a screen for 12 hours a day.

Start running or lifting or join a team sport. Anything that gets you into zone 3 for at least a couple of hours every week.

The counterintuitive concept here is the more you feel tired or burnt out the more you need to exercise. Unless of course you’ve been unloading boxes or some such all week.

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