Ask HN: Can't concentrate to focus, until it's last minute or later

I can't attest to your no noise tip, I'm one of those people that likes/needs background noise to focus, but IM, phone, and email are task-killers for me, as well. I also agree with limiting progress; I set a daily task goal in my head for each task as I start it. I often work through that daily goal, but it has really helped me tackle large projects without getting burned-out.

For a counterintuitive remedy, I'd suggest this: get busier. Have more stuff going on in your life. Pick up a hobby or two. Take on more projects. Busy people don't have time to procrastinate. Your projects, like gasses, will expand to fill the free time allotted to getting them done. So give yourself less time to get them done. Structure your time. Have at least two or three things of significance to worry about each day.

I'm not saying this will work for everyone. But if you're the kind of person who doesn't do well with unstructured time, you will want to acknowledge that and put some structure in place. I did my best academic work in high school, for instance, and that's largely because I was overloaded in high school. I'm not saying you want to overload yourself, as that's not emotionally sustainable. But if you really want to perform at your best, you need to be at least a little stressed every day. (See: the concept of "good stress" or "eustress" vs. "bad stress.") I struggled at first in college, and in my first year in the professional world, until I realized as much and added high school-like structure (of a sort) back into my life.

I also find that productivity benefits from a sort of momentum. I'm never more productive than when I've just knocked one or two smaller tasks out of the way and build up an energy to keep clearing through the list. Atomize bigger projects, and also chain them together with smaller, easier projects in clustered to-do lists.

To use another physics analogy, consider the inertia of productivity. The more time you spend idle, the harder it is to get started. The more time you spend working, the harder it is to slow down.

(Lest someone read the above and think it's a recipe for burnout: I'm not saying to work yourself into a frenzy at all times. Schedule breaks. Hell, have entire days where you do absolutely nothing unless the spirit moves you. But have enough going on in your life that you never find your days totally bereft of structure or things to get done.)

Can you add more external deadlines to your important work? I've setup weekly calls with three clients, spread out through the week. This way no matter how much I feel like not working, I'm going to be having a phone call either today or tomorrow about code that's not yet written. This makes work just get done.

Do you need more sleep? I have a pile of little people at home who wake up all hours of the night and need me to do something. I've found that taking a half hour nap in the morning and one in the afternoon gives me one to two extremely productive hours after a nap.

My thoughts exactly. OP, watch this video, and see if it resonates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq8zVgumJ6I&ab_channel=Total...

You can boost it by eating chocolate or other high-energy foods, but all digestion takes some energy and you aren't replenishing the brain benefits of sleep/rest (and you'll probably start packing on weight if you do it daily...).

I have found getting out of the office for some exercise after a good morning session can get you a good hour or two of similar focus/concentration when you return (again, you must get right on task). It's not the same quality, a squirrel running down the wire out my window can easily take me off task, but I'm in the bonus round for the day, anyway.