- Disabled notifications.
- I take long walks, frequently.
- Cancel noising headphones
Ask HN: How do you focus at work?
41–50 of 84 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus at work?
#42Pomodoro timer.
I work for 25 minutes at a time then take 5 minute breaks. This is more to help me start getting into flow. I know I don't do it right, but I'll start the pomodoro and that's my minimum. If I'm really into what I'm working on I'll see my time is up and commit to an additional work cycle or two.
It also helps me track what I'm working on and how long each task takes me. And gives me set breaks in which I get to write comments on HN, like this one :-)
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus at work?
#43Active noise cancelling headphones. Monitors set up to block rest of the office including peripheral vision. Wall behind my back.
Slack notifications and all in browser notifications off.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus at work?
#44Addy. 5 mg. Every other day. I know this will be down-voted, but I've been having issues focussing at work and completing projects for the last 10 years or so. Visited a Psychiatrist (in Palo Alto). After listening to my situation, she followed it up with a detailed Q & A. She then prescribed 5 mg XR (extended release) of Adderall. Apparently "mild ADHD" is a thing with software engineers in their 30s and up... The d…
Adderall works but I find Vyvanse to be less intrusive and allows for greater behavioral flexibility which is a must if youre doing any kind of teamwork
Its been around for a while but compared to dexmethylphenidate, or Adderall proper, it doesnt have as much of the euphoria that makes it difficult to objectively assess work output, what with the slower acting formulation (but this seems kind of a given, since its a prodrug after all), it doesnt completely change your personality and you can more effectively context switch
edit: i have a perscription, due to attention span of a drosophilia melanogaster
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus at work?
#45Get a Bose QC 35, it will change your life and also your future flights.
Many have said that noise cancellation does not work for coworkers' voices. Is that your experience or are these for another reason?
On a plane I find that I can actually hear voices better, because the background of the plane is gone. I don’t believe people who say “noise canceling headphones”, because they just don’t work that way. You’d need both the headphones and music or something, and having to listen to music all day can be just as fatiguing.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus at work?
#46https://musicforprogramming.net/?two is something that my wife uses with success.
Thank you for sharing that!
I normally queue up a station on Digitally Imported [0], but I do find myself getting distracted if I recognize a song I like, or when the ads come on. I'll give this a shot and see how I like it :)
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus at work?
#47As someone who grew up next to a highway in a place with constantly-on TVs, i don't notice most kinds of noise, so i can't offer any advice on that front.
What was a distraction in my case was internet browsing. This got solved by having a dedicated tablet for all sorts of non-essential browsing, and the work computers never having anything but work-related links.
You'd think that's not going to matter, but the little bit of friction that created was enough.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus at work?
#48Meta: Curious how a dup of this comment is downvoted into oblivion under a different account and this is at the top.
We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17545540 and marked it off-topic.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus at work?
#49Get a Bose QC 35, it will change your life and also your future flights.
I own the Bose QC25 and have never really been happy with its capability to block human voices. Perhaps the QC35 are better. I also read that the Sony noise cancelling headphones (MDR-1000x and successors) have eclipsed the Bose ones in noise-cancelling quality. Anyhow, having to charge (or change batteries) for headphones every day is really annoying.
My current setup involves in-ear monitors (Massdrop x MEE Audio Pinnacle PX IEM) plus gigantic 3M Peltor X5A earmuffs on top of them [1].
I look ridiculous wearing the 3M Peltor X5A but it sends a strong message that I don't want to be disturbed, and they do a much better job than the Bose headphones at blocking human voices.
I have read that an alternative is to wear headphones on top of in-ear monitors, playing music on the IEMs and white noise on the headphones. This is the setup for Starcraft II professional gamers in tournament settings, for example.
[1] pic: https://pics.dllu.net/file/dllu-pics/20180716_151629.jpg
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus at work?
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many have said that noise cancellation does not work for coworkers' voices. Is that your experience or are these for another reason?
It depends on the distance from your co-workers, how loud they talk, and how much you are willing to damage your hearing to drown them out.
And also on your office's acoustics.