12 minutes of meditation* before starting work. Keeps me laser-focused for longer periods. (*=sit comfortably, eyes closed, focus on breath, gently resist mind wandering)
Ask HN: How do you stay focused while programming/working?
31–40 of 54 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you stay focused while programming/working?
#32you haven't demonstrated that you need focus, what you have tho is shown that you have a bad habit. Kill the bad habit, you are aware of it. So new Twitter or HN or any win. Replace it with something else, pump your fist. Have a win book, write down your win and move on to the next. If you have a todo list, cross it off. Best of luck.
right on, break the habit and focus will follow.
Re: Ask HN: How do you stay focused while programming/working?
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of the good stuff is off the shelf. L-Theanine for focus. Creatine monohydrate for more RAM (thinking faster, less brain fog).
About stuff off the shelf: I bought Focus Pep ( https://www.amazon.com/Addrena-Stimulants-Boosting-Dietary-S... ) a year ago or so off Amazon (I believe they are only sold through Amazon). Well, they helped me tremendously. I would take them minutes after I would wake up and I would then consequently have a want and go for a three mile run every day of the week. Then I would go to several of my classes and be focused…
Interesting formulation.
Try getting your hands on the tyrosine and the bacopa individually. Those two can be very useful. I take both.
The Vitamin B12 is potentially interesting; I have that in a spray form (on my table right here actually) which I'm trying to remember to take in the morning.
The caffeine is likely added as "energy sugar", ie to give the product a noticeable boost. Caffeine does work, but the toll it takes (and its predominantly psychological effect) is well known.
The Guarana seed extract, Bitter Orange Fruit Powder, DMAE, White Willow Bark, and Huperzine-A I can't comment at all about, but have been filed away.
The Carnitine and Choline I can't remember about right now... I think those are interesting, but I haven't properly tested my reaction to those just yet.
I'm guessing the pepper was added to increase absorption (it's supposed to rev the gut up and help digestion, and not in a bad way, but everyone works differently and sometimes this plan backfires).
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When it comes to natural health, getting all the compounds individually and then figuring out the doses you need generally has the best effect.
This also means you shard your requirements between a bunch of different suppliers, so when one decides to go switch to a cheaper upstream and a week later you go "hangonaminute" and start suspecting your supplements as the reason your brain felt like it went out to lunch... well you can just switch the single compound. Comparatively, if you shop around different suppliers for a product you don't seem to react great to, you might find you eventually go "wait, what... how..." once you finally find the one supplier that prepares the product such that it _actually works_. (Don't forget these two. They happen to me more often than I would like. :This is generally more expensive (agh, so expensive...) but the results are worth it. I have quite a few issues (anxiety, cognition/problem-solving, mood, memory, stamina, nervous system, ...) and, well, the only reason I'm not 100% on top of my game is because I can't afford to take more than I'm taking right now (which ironically is the reason I don't have the mental consistency to get a job at this point xD). The products do work.
Re: Ask HN: How do you stay focused while programming/working?
#34IMO, the specific situation you're describing (wanting to check in on HN) does not have a 1:1 relationship with the bigger picture you're associating it with (focusing in general).
I've discovered that I also periodically want to check HN, imgur, etc periodically.
Fundamentally, this is because I really (really...) need to setup an intelligent social tracking system that tells me about interesting things that I will probably want to intervene in RIGHT NOW, whether inconvenient or not, because of some ascribed value (for example being able to comment on a relevant discussion, reach out to someone in the context of some opportunity, etc). I primarily check in on HN for this reason; "is there relevant discussion happening right now." While I don't have the system I just described, I'm trying to be it myself.
Of course this doesn't really scale or work, but it's incredibly fun to pretend I'm competently keeping up with everything because the activity of "just making sure" is one of those simple, predictable activities that has statistically low chance of disappointment (or concrete negativity/malice) and statistically high chance of low-effort reward (except for those 183 times where it was boring, which I ignore those because superstition is powerful), and... oh hey, there goes my day.
When I realized this recently I was able to at least stare the problem in the face. Now I can work on swinging in the direction of closure for this whole... thing of "keeping up" that I've deliberately been cultivating lack of closure of, for the sake of addiction, and hopefully get myself focused and back on track.
I guess the "one level up" scope/domain from this would be "online distraction", rather than focusing in general. I said a few related things on the subject a couple months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15418671#15423170
And I commented on the value of supplements in this thread over here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15904764
Re: Ask HN: How do you stay focused while programming/working?
#35[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: How do you stay focused while programming/working?
#36It's not exactly new and exciting, but I found that listening to calm, instrumental music helps me focus. Mostly Ambient. If you do not like electronic music, Stars Of The Lid or Bohren & Der Club Of Gore are very much worth checking out. Also, https://mynoise.net/ has worked wonders for me. In both cases, it seems that unstructured audio input, like, occupies the parts of my mind that would otherwise distract me.
binaural beats are something similar. They've helped me focus.
Re: Ask HN: How do you stay focused while programming/working?
#37I've actually had a bit of luck with:
"brew install sbagen"
"sbagen /usr/local/share/sbagen/examples/focus/focus-03-a.sbg"
(Linux packages exist too.)
Don't expect anything huge, but the effect that I see with simple binaural beats is a slight calming and improved focus. It seems to quiet the urge to goof off and compulsively check sites like this. No it's not on right now.
Re: Ask HN: How do you stay focused while programming/working?
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you have any examples of good pseudocode? I have tried this method but feel as if I am not doing it in an effective manner? And while writing pseudocode how do you know the level of depth and detail to include.
Learn python. Seriously, I fell in love with python when I noticed it looked just like my psuedo code. As to your question of depth, I start at the highest level if abstraction I can get away with, assume that some magic function exists and does what you need. If said function isn't in the standard library, implement it if it's simple, implement it, just know that you're getting closer to actual code the more of thes…
I fell in love too. Fist language that I actually was able to feel I understood. Its been about a year since I started.
Your feedback on depth is really helpful. Thanks!
Re: Ask HN: How do you stay focused while programming/working?
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you have any examples of good pseudocode? I have tried this method but feel as if I am not doing it in an effective manner? And while writing pseudocode how do you know the level of depth and detail to include.
Not OP and no examples at hand I can share, but I'll try and describe my process: While not pseudocode per se - my offline coding is predominantly outlining structures and data flows; so how I would structure the application (classes etc - where what code would reside etc). Then I expand from the structure to start moving the data objects themselves around (also giving an overarching structure to the data objects as…
This is helpful. Going to try this today!
Re: Ask HN: How do you stay focused while programming/working?
#40If anyone's interested in neuroscience and machine learning, we're working on a fun little project to use EEG to track focus and optimize productivity here: https://github.com/neurotechx/neurodoro