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

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

#161

Post by tedmiston » Mon, Apr 18, 2016, 12:08 AM UTC

amasad wrote: post #49

mchannon wrote: post #35

Here's a contrarian viewpoint- There's nothing wrong with you- your subconscious is doing its job. Procrastination is an unpopular but nonetheless effective method of time and task management. In fact, I'd argue it's the most effective. Take a college class for example. Your instructor gives you a weeklong homework assignment. While a few type-A personalities may dive in right away and have it done by the following d…

>subconscious didn't spend a week thinking about the problems Is there another person hiding in the corners of your brain doing the work? What does subconciocus even mean in this context? I think if we replaced 'subconscious' with 'mojo' here it would sound the same for me.

For me, once I know that a problem exists and the constraints around, my brain starts working on it in its downtime.

I've always felt like most clean code ideas I come up with come from marinating. Perhaps it' my brain arriving at the first solution, then seeking more elegance.

For me, this results in committing a cleaner solution on paper at deadline time, even if I spend the same amount of hours of "active" mental energy on it by not starting until the day before it was due, etc.

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

#162

Post by tedmiston » Mon, Apr 18, 2016, 12:14 AM UTC

jonny_storm wrote: post #7

Many of us are training our bodies to prefer the quick fix of chemicals that come from clicking our way to enjoyment, and this can carry over into even our most cherished endeavors. No one will be able to prescribe a single solution for listlessness because it is a symptom of many smaller problems, and it may be some time before you find the right combination of changes that effect a total positive outcome. That said…

Re: mental effects of diet - Likewise for dehydration.

I try to keep a cup of water on my desk all the time now, or at least have a few ounces on each break.

Also for me personally, it isn't listlessness necessarily. Sometimes I have boundless amounts of energy, but it's just not appropriate for the task I have at hand -- ex. working on a data structure & algorithms puzzle vs. writing a rest endpoint.

In college, this was easy to circumvent because I had 100% control of what work I did at what time of day. I spent many nights during grad school working between 11 pm and 3 am (because I wanted to and it worked well for me).

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

#163

Post by tedmiston » Mon, Apr 18, 2016, 12:22 AM UTC

hacker_9 wrote: post #30

As a solo indie game developer, who has to self motivate everyday, here's what I've found: 1. Programming is a completely mental/brain activity as you know, requiring no real physical exertion. So it should be easy to work on code problems all day right? Wrong. 2. The body requires physical exercise of some sort, it is literally how we are architectured, and if you don't move about then the immune system can't functi…

(I fat fingered and accidentally downvoted you -- I completely agree with your comment though.)

For [3], just curious if you have tried group yoga classes? I like a lot of the concepts and ideas around yoga, but each time I've tried a class it's been extremely anxiety inducing due to either feeling claustrophobic or struggling to keep up from not knowing the positions (and deductive reasoning leads to frustration from looking around to find everyone else doing the position a little different, yet somehow acting like they either don't notice or aren't concerned with the nuances). I want to like it, but it has stressed me out each time.

My current solution is 15-30 minute cardio sessions on an elliptical, but having a gym 20 minutes from where I work is far enough I'll often skip it or find going midday impractical.

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

#164

Post by tedmiston » Mon, Apr 18, 2016, 12:35 AM UTC

distracted828 wrote: post #77

When you start looking for jobs, only join a company that does TDD and pair programming. Ask about this in interviews. TDD helps you break down tasks and, when you lose focus, you can regain it by re-running your test suite and seeing which test fails. Pair programming help you because: - They'll tend to have closer to a 10-6 schedule rather than encouraging you to stay up late. - When talking through the problem wit…

Re: pair programming

The Pragmatic Bookshelf published a neat related book that's a light ~100-page read called Remote Pairing: Collaborative Tools for Distributed Development [0]. It also mentions a few companies that do pair programming exclusively. Pivotal Labs is one that comes to mind.

0: https://pragprog.com/book/jkrp/remote-pairing

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

#165

Post by robotresearcher » Mon, Apr 18, 2016, 1:05 AM UTC

tajen wrote: post #148

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think about the environment you were in when you were the most productive. Maybe that was in high school or college, or during your first few years in your career. Ask yourself: What was different back then? I was younger.

I was beloved. By my parents.

Don't give up. Get out and meet people. Friends are easier to find than romance and love from friends is quiet and unflashy and good and powerful.

If I misunderstood your situation from your six word post, forgive me.

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

#166

Post by tedmiston » Mon, Apr 18, 2016, 1:15 AM UTC

brudgers wrote: post #4

When this sort of thing happens to me, I attribute it to a combination of factors. 1. The work is complex and not actively "doing something" lets it simmer on the back burner of my brain. 2. I'm not overly busy. 3. I'm too busy. 4. The work isn't really interesting at a deep down level. 5. The work is so interesting that it sparks curiosity about related topics that might help me do it better. 6. I'm burned out. 7. I…

http://www.ted.com/talks/linus_torvalds_the_mind_behind_linu...

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

#167

Post by rwallace » Mon, Apr 18, 2016, 1:29 AM UTC

Different tricks work for different people.

Here's one I find works for me: given a pile of tasks sufficiently daunting that it's hard to get started, take the easiest. Not the most important, the easiest, the one that can be completed fastest. Burn some (scarce, precious) willpower doing that. Then use the morale boost from successful completion of that first task, as activation energy to do the second easiest, and so on.

If the easiest task is so unimportant that it doesn't feel like a good idea to spend time on it, should it be on your to-do list at all? It's sometimes a good idea to physically or mentally designate tasks to not be done at all. No, cleaning up files on your computer is not worth doing. Yes, you've been meaning to get around to writing to your old high school friend for the last five years and haven't yet done it - so admit that, stop wasting morale beating yourself up about it, and just cross it off your to-do list.

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

#168

Post by saeranv » Mon, Apr 18, 2016, 1:34 AM UTC

Regular, long (60min) sessions of meditation has helped me a lot. Not only will it increase your ability to concentrate on one idea for a longer period of time, it also provides a conceptual framework to get rid of the anxieties, and fears that are causing you to procrastinate in the first place.

The biggest problem is that it is difficult, and it's quite easy to find yourself 'resetting' to your baseline if you miss a couple of days.

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

#169

Post by tedmiston » Mon, Apr 18, 2016, 1:41 AM UTC

ak39 wrote: post #26

cylinder wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty bad for me, I dream about bailing to a blue collar life because then I can focus and work with my hands, and not click around online procrastinating. All that talk did was talk about the symptoms of what it's like to be a procrastinator. Including the link in another comment. Who wants to talk about how to fix it other than "stop procrastinating!"

Do you keep a simple list of things to finish? Whenever you think of something that needs to be done, jot it down. Carry that black book everywhere. See if that works.

Keeping an "easy" list is one idea from Getting Things Done that still works for me. Energy level was one type of context, but there are others as well.

https://hamberg.no/gtd/#contexts

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

#170

Post by tedmiston » Mon, Apr 18, 2016, 2:09 AM UTC

cylinder wrote: post #32

ak39 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you keep a simple list of things to finish? Whenever you think of something that needs to be done, jot it down. Carry that black book everywhere. See if that works.

I am horrible at lists and calendars. Even if I start keeping a Todo list or an organized calendar or Evernote ideas log, I just stop paying attention to the list eventually. I see how coworkers are constantly looking at their calendar, and that's just confusing to me.

Have you tried a methodology like GTD?