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Ask HN: What is your trick to do deep work or study?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your trick to do deep work or study?

#41

Post by jjav »

Eliminate anything that is a distraction to you.

For me that means absolute silence (which means I can't ever get any work done in an open office). In these covid times I've rented a small private office very close to the house where I can hole up and concentrate (I have a younger child so silence isn't happening at home).

I turn off all notifications from every possible source. No emails, no slack, no phone. (My phone is always 100% on mute for everything, except calls from my wife in case there's an emergency).

Maybe most importantly, I take 20-30 minutes in the evening to make a plan on what to work on the next day. In the morning I just work on what I pre-planned. I will not check email or slack or anything at all until I've done 3-4 hours of solid work. Only then I'll check email in case there's anything new to care about. As soon as I check these communications the day tends to go downhill on distractions from dozens of discussion threads so I won't get anything else done in the day. But I banked in those 3-4 hours in the morning on progress.

When times are slow, sure, I'll check email/slack in the morning and won't get anything done all day.

Re: Ask HN: What is your trick to do deep work or study?

#44

Post by esperent »

Donald wrote: post #39
nlh wrote: post #9

Here's a trick that works for me that's totally impractical, but is a hint/roadmap to finding a repeatable system: I've been doing a lot of travel to Europe lately, and the return flight has become my greatest deep work experience ever. I enjoy it so much that I actually look forward to it now and wish I could do it more than ~4 times a year. I fly either Zurich or Frankfurt to SFO on United and get an economy bulkhe…

> Obviously as I said it's not practical to fly around the world to get work done A friend of mine finished her novel through repeated long-haul flights from JFK. The on-going expense alone is motivating.

I hope, for maximum irony, the novel features climate change as a plot point.

Re: Ask HN: What is your trick to do deep work or study?

#45

Post by mnazim »

dorkwood wrote: post #35

One weird trick I use is to listen to a particular kind of music. The genre isn't important. Neither is the content. What's important is that I've listened to that same music while experiencing a flow state in the past. Just as music attached to a time and place can make us remember how we felt back then, music attached to memories of deep work can make us feel more focused. I don't have any sources to back this up.…

Can't recommend CodeRadio[0] enough for this purpose.

0: https://coderadio.freecodecamp.org/

Re: Ask HN: What is your trick to do deep work or study?

#46

Post by munchbunny »

nlh wrote: post #9

Here's a trick that works for me that's totally impractical, but is a hint/roadmap to finding a repeatable system: I've been doing a lot of travel to Europe lately, and the return flight has become my greatest deep work experience ever. I enjoy it so much that I actually look forward to it now and wish I could do it more than ~4 times a year. I fly either Zurich or Frankfurt to SFO on United and get an economy bulkhe…

I personally have never succeeded at deep work on flights, but I found that long haul flights are excellent time for reflection and journaling. I can’t stay awake long enough to get deep flow state, but reflection is quite doable and maybe even improved by involuntary napping.

Re: Ask HN: What is your trick to do deep work or study?

#47

Post by dpflan »

Donald wrote: post #39
nlh wrote: post #9

Here's a trick that works for me that's totally impractical, but is a hint/roadmap to finding a repeatable system: I've been doing a lot of travel to Europe lately, and the return flight has become my greatest deep work experience ever. I enjoy it so much that I actually look forward to it now and wish I could do it more than ~4 times a year. I fly either Zurich or Frankfurt to SFO on United and get an economy bulkhe…

> Obviously as I said it's not practical to fly around the world to get work done A friend of mine finished her novel through repeated long-haul flights from JFK. The on-going expense alone is motivating.

Thanks for sharing. This and the parent are interesting anecdotes. It reveals the “cost” of the environment for “deep work”, and therein the price / value of deep work to these individuals. This is an expensive and impactful price to pay to achieve a higher state of mind. How can the environment be recreated on demand (just like a long haul flight schedule) with less cost and environmental impact?

Re: Ask HN: What is your trick to do deep work or study?

#48

Post by switch11 »

I find the following things really help me get in flow

A) (If this applies to you) work at a time when rest of the world is asleep

B) Have some medium quality thing going on at the same time

Ideal is NEtflix as they have a lot of mediocre shows. It should not be too good or it will distract you. It should not be too bad or it will distract you. Just good enough so that it is OK to watch but you don't care what happens in the actual movie or show

*

That's it. As quiet as possible + one medium quality distraction ongoing so the part of your brain that wants distraction gets it

Then just focus on your work

Re: Ask HN: What is your trick to do deep work or study?

#49

Post by exophoric »

dorkwood wrote: post #35

One weird trick I use is to listen to a particular kind of music. The genre isn't important. Neither is the content. What's important is that I've listened to that same music while experiencing a flow state in the past. Just as music attached to a time and place can make us remember how we felt back then, music attached to memories of deep work can make us feel more focused. I don't have any sources to back this up.…

did my PhD from A to Z listening to the same songza, then google play music, now youtube music station. I still listen to it while working.

I cannot relate more to what has been said above.

Re: Ask HN: What is your trick to do deep work or study?

#50

Post by perdid0 »

I’ve found there’s simply a time of the day it’s so much easier for me to focus. No idea why, but around 11 pm it turns on. I wake up early for work, but still, if I’m trying to do something, I can focus so easily at that time. At 2-3 am I have to force myself to go to bed cause I know I need to wake up early. No matter what I try during the day, nothing compares except the rare cases when something in prod is broken and everything is urgent. Maybe try just listening to your body instead of tricking it
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