My friend sent me this and I’ve nearing 200 sessions on it. It’s like a pomodoro timer but with a person to quickly talk to before and after. I hadn't used productivity tools before this one, I like it.
Ask HN: How do I develop focus?
141–150 of 201 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do I develop focus?
#142-- Limit your time on social media to 20 minutes or less a day (LinkedIn/Facebook/Discord use that's related to work is an exception.) No studies exist yet to support this hypothesis, but it's my observation that longtime exposure to social media impedes overall focus. -- Limit your TV watching to one or two hours on the weekends, per week -- Limit video game use to one or two hours per week -- Find an activity you l…
-- Wake up early and try to accomplish something significant before 8am I always hate this piece of advice, if i wake up early, even if I am able to struggle through getting 'something significant done' before 8am i'm going to feel terrible for the rest of the day since i got up early, it's not worth it at all. This advice is nonsense and not universal, yet the same nonsense is constantly repeated. I understand it ca…
Maybe it’s a numbers game. I’ve met maybe two people in my life who rise late who actually seem to get stuff done, compared to at least a dozen or more examples of early risers who are successful. I am not a morning person but I’ve trained myself to wake up around 6am and found it helps me get a lot done. Used to wake up around 9am and stumble into everything. I think most of the humans around wake up early so having to adjust to the majority schedule is probably the issue.
Re: Ask HN: How do I develop focus?
#143Practice. Treat focus like a skill you develop, or a muscle that you train to be stronger. If you wanted to improve your weightlifting you would schedule regular gym visits and create a plan to do a certain amount of lifting each day with slightly more weight each week. If you wanted to improve your running you’d set aside time to run and try to run incrementally farther over time. Focus is the same: You need to star…
Small nit, but I think the research around "focus is a muscle" ended up being unable to replicate.
I can't cite the exact research, but Angela Duckworth turned me onto this on an episode of "No Stupid Questions" about two or three weeks ago.
Good advice generally though, and nothing you said really relies on focus being a muscle; you still need to practice it, but no need to worry about not being "conditioned" enough, is all.
Update: Found it! [0]
> Laboratories implemented one of two procedures that intended to manipulate self control and tested performance on a subsequent measure of self control. Confirmatory tests found a non-significant result, d = 0.06. Confirmatory Bayesian meta-analyses using an informed prior hypothesis (δ = 0.30; SD = 0.15) found the data were four times more likely under the null than the alternative hypothesis. Hence, preregistered analyses did not find evidence for a depletion effect.
[0] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346303522_A_Multisi...
Re: Ask HN: How do I develop focus?
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
-- Wake up early and try to accomplish something significant before 8am I always hate this piece of advice, if i wake up early, even if I am able to struggle through getting 'something significant done' before 8am i'm going to feel terrible for the rest of the day since i got up early, it's not worth it at all. This advice is nonsense and not universal, yet the same nonsense is constantly repeated. I understand it ca…
Maybe it’s a numbers game. I’ve met maybe two people in my life who rise late who actually seem to get stuff done, compared to at least a dozen or more examples of early risers who are successful. I am not a morning person but I’ve trained myself to wake up around 6am and found it helps me get a lot done. Used to wake up around 9am and stumble into everything. I think most of the humans around wake up early so having…
This is at least in part down to societal structure.
Education runs on a "morning person" schedule from a young age, through early adulthood. After that, there's certainly more choice available in terms of life schedule, but the vast majority of people are corralled into a form of employment built on the same schedule. Even if not, all major services one interfaces with in one's life operate on that schedule.
Even if you managed against all odds to develop healthy daily habits during the 20-ish years of strict poorly suited scheduling that is the education system, applying those habits only becomes more difficult when you move into a more independent self-driven environment of providing for oneself financially. This absolutely kills any hope of developing productive habits for most people.
---
Anecdata: I'd classify myself as "not a morning person", but I don't find difficult to get up early. e.g. I don't need an alarm-clock. What I find difficult is functioning after getting up.
I don't have kids but I've a pretty demanding large dog that had a strong preference for 5am walks when he first arrived, which I adapted to reasonably easily. Walking a dog isn't really a "significant accomplishment" in the commonly understood sense, and more-importantly, isn't a mentally challenging or "applied" activity. I'm completely unable to function in the mornings when it comes to doing anything even mildly complex.
Also, getting up at 5am means I'm severely less productive from 6pm onwards, which is my peak productive period when I operate on natural rhythm. I'm reasonably successful (I think) and I work a remote job from Ireland on a US tz schedule, so that's particularly tough.
Re: Ask HN: How do I develop focus?
#145-- Limit your time on social media to 20 minutes or less a day (LinkedIn/Facebook/Discord use that's related to work is an exception.) No studies exist yet to support this hypothesis, but it's my observation that longtime exposure to social media impedes overall focus. -- Limit your TV watching to one or two hours on the weekends, per week -- Limit video game use to one or two hours per week -- Find an activity you l…
No post body was provided.
Re: Ask HN: How do I develop focus?
#146Alternative take: you don't, you can't, and there's nothing you can really do about it.
The successful people you see are just the lucky ones whose attention was already turned to things that could make them successful and they just went with it. Because what they were focused on was valuable, society rewarded them, which created a feedback loop of positive reinforcement and kept them focused.
Instead, just try to finish something. Anything. Complete literally any of your projects, and probably during your "interest window". Decide to be someone who finishes stuff, even if it's not perfect. That'll be valuable enough on its own.
Flit from thing to thing, finishing them in the barest-of-minimum way, while still "completing" the work. Give each thing you're interested in pursuing a chance at collecting real feedback, and see if that feedback sparks further interest. If it does, keep going. If it doesn't, move on.
Re: Ask HN: How do I develop focus?
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
-- Wake up early and try to accomplish something significant before 8am I always hate this piece of advice, if i wake up early, even if I am able to struggle through getting 'something significant done' before 8am i'm going to feel terrible for the rest of the day since i got up early, it's not worth it at all. This advice is nonsense and not universal, yet the same nonsense is constantly repeated. I understand it ca…
Maybe it’s a numbers game. I’ve met maybe two people in my life who rise late who actually seem to get stuff done, compared to at least a dozen or more examples of early risers who are successful. I am not a morning person but I’ve trained myself to wake up around 6am and found it helps me get a lot done. Used to wake up around 9am and stumble into everything. I think most of the humans around wake up early so having…
I'm a late-riser by nature.
Being early, however, is a superpower. If you show up to a meeting prepared or get correspondence out to your counterparties early in the morning, everything goes better. So, early rising confers a number of advantages that tend to compound. These days, I'm an increasingly early-riser.
The thing that matters is your phase relative to the rest of humanity. Getting pre-work done for the following day in an evening may also work for a late riser, but it doesn't work for me.
Re: Ask HN: How do I develop focus?
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it depends on the person. I’m a “morning person.” My wife is definitely not. For me, I enjoy getting up at 5 (actually, it takes a while to get to the “enjoy” part). I walk a couple of miles, take a shower, and often fix a number of issues before 8. One of the most productive developers I ever knew (a former employee) was a “non-morning person.” He would amble into the office at noon. Drove HR crazy, but all…
> We tend to have a habit of projecting what works for us, onto others. I wish more people would understand this when giving advice -- what works for one case or one person is guaranteed to have many exceptions when you try to apply it to a larger population. I'm a relatively new parent, and I've gotten to the point to where I hate when other parents give advice. Something that worked for your kid won't necessarily w…
Is it up to the giver of advice or the taker? In a way, the giver just wants to talk about their experience. The taker wants to use the advice. It seems more realistic to have the taker vet what's told to them online.
Re: Ask HN: How do I develop focus?
#149I'm starting to come out of the dark night of the soul that started when I burned out in 2019 just before the pandemic. I've begun to feel emotions again like boredom, impulsiveness, even stuff like competitiveness, which I let go of while working through ego death.
It's not much, but what really helped me was flipping things around and seeing myself from other people's perspective. Like, feeling a calling to do something to help others or even the whole world, and doing that instead of browbeating myself to be more productive or finish something. Then harmonies have something to emerge from. I don't really know how to articulate it yet, but I think that motivation comes from love.
Re: Ask HN: How do I develop focus?
#150I'm starting to come out of the dark night of the soul that started when I burned out in 2019 just before the pandemic. I've begun to feel emotions again like boredom, impulsiveness, even stuff like competitiveness, which I let go of while working through ego death. It's not much, but what really helped me was flipping things around and seeing myself from other people's perspective. Like, feeling a calling to do some…
May I ask what your practices were that led you to the dark night, and how you then came out the other side? After years of meditation I've kicked it up a notch this past year, and feel like I'm approaching that dark night period. My feelings are somewhat muted, my previous interests and passions have dulled. It's hard to see the point in doing anything.
>> feeling a calling to do something to help others or even the whole world
I would like to get to this place. I try to remember this from A Course in Miracles when I'm feeling pressured to perform:
I am here only to be truly helpful. I am here to represent Him Who sent me. I do not have to worry about what to say or what to do, because He Who sent me will direct me. I am content to be wherever He wishes, knowing He goes there with me. I will be healed as I let Him teach me to heal. (T‑4.XI.8:2‑6)