A bad workman always blames his tools.
Maybe, but the workman of old didn't have tools that were pretty much engineered to distract them. Focus is a real problem for a lot of people, and some people are really easy to distract.
Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?
41–50 of 64 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?
#42Re: Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?
#43I'd recommend talking to a therapist. If you're behaving in a way that you find self-destructive, a therapist can help. Good luck and I wish you the best in your efforts
Re: Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?
#44I was thinking to install Ubuntu, to get rid of addictive stuff, make it harder to go beyond bare bones writing, coding and reading.
Yes, spend your time maintaining a Linux distro on the desktop instead. Everytime it breaks, you won't have time to surf any toxic forums.
Hahahahaha. Every time it breaks, you go searching for help and end up reading either holy war about this or that technical detail or a dick-measuring contest.
Re: Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?
#45Have you considered therapy? It sounds like you might benefit from it.
If that's a bit too much, maybe try pomodoro or similar techniques. Basically create small achievable goals for yourself; "I'm going to read 10 minutes without distraction", "I'll practice one question" etc. After you could reward yourself with a 5-10min distraction break.
Also maybe try mindfulness.
Re: Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?
#46Your question is completely wrong. Instead you should ask:
How to stop my mind from being a monkey jumping from one distraction to another?
The answer is simple - meditation
Re: Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?
#47• Option click in the top right corner of the screen to enable do not disturb. • use Spaces and put all the chattery apps in one Space (right click in Dock > only this space) • Hide the Dock • Set cmd-lower right corner of screen (in screensaver prefs) to turn off screen, so you can easily create a void when you need to think • Turn off all extra toolbars in programs, reduce visual clutter as much as possible • Hide…
> Launch apps w/ Spotlight (cmd space) so you don't see cluttered Dock or Launchpad or Apps folder
If you'd like to go beyond apps: https://www.raycast.com/ (I found it better than Alfred)
Re: Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?
#48Having been there I found there are two side, removing distractions and mentally retraining yourself. The latter takes time.
To remove distractions I have turned off all notifications (you don’t need them), declutterd my desktop (delete unnesesry apps, remove distracting ones you still need from the dock on macOS). The biggest for me though was blocking sites like Reddit, just point them to the loop back ip in your host file, no need for clever blocking software, just pertinently block them.
Re: Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?
#49> I guess is partly because of being alone and lonely. Hard to make friends after college. Seems impossible to make good ones.
This is something you're going to want to solve eventually. You recognise these are what you long for when you engage in behaviour that distracts yourself. I would strongly recommend doubling down and solving your loneliness and belonging problem (and i realise its not easy. I struggle with it too. But you have to start somewhere and it gets better. Use the internet, use your head, solve it little at a time)
Take care of your needs and the tendency to escape reality will slowly subside and this will likely be the most sustainable solution.
Of course you're also going to want to incorporate the countless suggestions here which give you a more hands on approach to tweaking your OS and your environment to maximise focus.
Re: Ask HN: How to make my macOS less distracting?
#50Change your behaviour by making it harder / more involved to access the distracting apps you need:
- use slack in the browser so you need to type in its address
You can think of other creative things like:
- use automation to only allow mail when some other app is running so now you start two apps?
- run messages under a second user account?
- slower browser in a vm for social media sites?
The sky is the limit. The key is to make it still possible to use the app, just more involved, breaking the habit.
The final advice from me is to write down what you are going to do and write down the currrbt situation and the approach you’re going to take, then all that’s left to do is act on it which sets up a nice internal focus mode