There's a lot of "I" in your comment. My suggestion: find some other people to work with. Once you bring your project into relationship, you will become accountable, and this helps cut down on the fantasy.
Ask HN: How do I develop focus?
41–50 of 201 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do I develop focus?
#42Practice. 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…
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Re: Ask HN: How do I develop focus?
#43-- 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…
HN for me is also a form of social media, especially if you find yourself checking it all the time.
HN is absolutely social media. Reddit and message boards, too. If you’re on a website socializing with other people or consuming socially-generated content from others, it’s social media.
Re: Ask HN: How do I develop focus?
#44Stop chasing novelty. Do the same kind of thing habitually. That's what focus is. Focus means doing and letting the ideas come while you are doing and only pursuing those ideas which are about what you are doing. It means new projects slowly so as to stay out of the way of ongoing work. Focus means new ideas equals more work, not alternative work.
I would second this one, to add, just finish what you start. (be reasonable with what you start)
e.g. I want to speed run Super Mario Brothers using code
Just finish at least a working version, screw the quality of the code, screw the results — just make it run/work once, then quit afterwards if you feel like it.
Side Tip: Less talk about what you are doing before you've did it, generally™, helps to complete it. (completely anecdotal)
Re: Ask HN: How do I develop focus?
#45Limit your consumption of news (including Hacker News).
Paradoxically, there was a thread about this on HN recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30830772
> The news does not matter. It has little, if any real impact on your life besides what you allow it to have.
Re: Ask HN: How do I develop focus?
#46> Ask HN: How do I develop focus? Ask your shrink for a Vyvanse/Elvanse prescription.
Edit: apologies, the way this is worded it looks like I’m recommending adhd meds - I’m recommending the doctor if this applies, not the drugs! See replies for more info :) Ritalin for me but yeah turned out it was ADHD in my case @op not diagnosing at all but if you find yourself not focused despite reward etc, worth looking into as a possibility. For example I’ve got basically unlimited freelance work available at e…
> can’t for the life of me find the motivation to do it. Check with a Dr if it’s that sort of thing!
To be clear: Stimulants are not motivation in pill form. The motivation boost is a short-term side effect and tolerance definitely develops quickly.
I think a lot of people get the wrong idea after seeing people use stimulants to cram for finals in college. Long-term treatment won’t do anything like that. It can improve focus and reduce distractability, but you’re not going to become a code-writing machine for the next decade on stimulants.
Re: Ask HN: How do I develop focus?
#47> Ask HN: How do I develop focus? Ask your shrink for a Vyvanse/Elvanse prescription.
I would seriously warn you that if you have to quit it later, you will not find it fun at all. Actually it was a nightmare for me because I did it cold turkey, but from what I read people who tapered off also found it quite difficult. You can expect to totally lose productivity at least for a whole week.
Also when you're off it even a day, hypersomnia is guaranteed. You're going to be sleeping 16+ hours a day.
Re: Ask HN: How do I develop focus?
#48-- 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…
Adding to the offline thing - I think it's great to find a hobby or sport that you can set goals in outside of your main gig (I'm a programmer, I chose disc golf and indoor skydiving). For me this led to feeling more confident generally, getting exercise/out of the house, and being in a space where I'm the primary learner, not teacher. It can also help enforce routine. IMO routine is even better if it's not the same thing every single day.
Re: Ask HN: How do I develop focus?
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Edit: apologies, the way this is worded it looks like I’m recommending adhd meds - I’m recommending the doctor if this applies, not the drugs! See replies for more info :) Ritalin for me but yeah turned out it was ADHD in my case @op not diagnosing at all but if you find yourself not focused despite reward etc, worth looking into as a possibility. For example I’ve got basically unlimited freelance work available at e…
> can’t for the life of me find the motivation to do it. Check with a Dr if it’s that sort of thing! To be clear: Stimulants are not motivation in pill form. The motivation boost is a short-term side effect and tolerance definitely develops quickly. I think a lot of people get the wrong idea after seeing people use stimulants to cram for finals in college. Long-term treatment won’t do anything like that. It can impro…
Oh absolutely, apologies for connecting them
Checking with a doctor, even if just to rule things out, is my recommendation in that scenario - not the drugs!
Yeah they have helped me so far but may not help everyone. Also it is true that while I’ve managed to set up some systems and processes so I’m no longer floundering, the direct effectiveness does peter off quite quickly over time.
I’ve got the option for a higher dose but I’d rather try burning in some new neural pathways before trying a possibly constant increasing (until it doesn’t anymore) dose
Re: Ask HN: How do I develop focus?
#50-- 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…
Doing meditation also helps a lot too.