dont look at your phone while youre waiting in lines etc.
meditate instead.
its like a free lunch for building concentration.
Ask HN: Any scientifically proven techniques to boost concentration?
161–170 of 188 posts
Re: Ask HN: Any scientifically proven techniques to boost concentration?
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think, what most people want is a pill that makes them less distractable. Ritalin is that pill. I know a bunch of devs that take it to code through the whole night. But...! 1. It usually requires a prescription. 2. While it lets you hyper-focus on one task for hours, if you not careful that task could be rearranging your cutlery.
thats a good way to burnout on coding my friend.
Yes, probably.
Re: Ask HN: Any scientifically proven techniques to boost concentration?
#163Exercise. After Covid I had a long period of time with low focus; I slowly recovered spending on average more than 30 minutes per day cycling (quite intense) for about 6 months. Walking may also help, I think in my case the combination of disconnecting + exercise made a difference. During cycling I was never thinking about work. In the winter I do pushups and lift weights, it is something I can do at home, it is also exercise and time off. It takes less than 30 minutes per day in total, in several rounds over 3-4 hours; my coffee break is now a pushups break.
I also noticed that I can write good code only 3-4 hours a day at most and not every single day. Luckily for me, I am not a developer, but the highest concentration and productivity can be achieved and maintained for relatively short periods of time, not 8x5.
Alcohol does not work well. It helps disconnect, but constant alcohol intake leads to even more alcohol and health problems.
Re: Ask HN: Any scientifically proven techniques to boost concentration?
#164unpopular opinion: half a cup of wine. any procrastination is gone!
Does it really make a difference? I have no problem with the idea, but I never saw an improvement in focus.
Re: Ask HN: Any scientifically proven techniques to boost concentration?
#165Meditation
Re: Ask HN: Any scientifically proven techniques to boost concentration?
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've tried to listen Huberman so many times but have hard time focusing. He seems to rattle off a list of things without any emotional hooks to keep the user engaged.
I tried watching the first six minutes of one if the above videos and it was all just fluf or advertising for his sponsors. No actual information. Podcasts in general seem like such a poor and inefficient way to acquire information. A brief article in Wikipedia that can be the jumping board for further explorariob is always so much better for me.
The adverts are at the beginning. Just skip forward if you don’t want to listen to them.
These podcasts are actually very dense with information once you get past the adverts.
Re: Ask HN: Any scientifically proven techniques to boost concentration?
#167Video game music is actually designed to increase your ability to concentrate on the game. I highly recommend listening to some as you're coding. You can get it at Bandcamp [1,2]. Trance music also works, especially Goa Trance. Binaural beats [3,4] are also worth a try. [1] https://bandcamp.com/tag/video-game [2] https://bandcamp.com/tag/video-game-music [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_(acoustics)#Binaural_bea…
There’s something to this. I’ve noticed an increase in heart rate, possibly a sympathetic reaction with the effect of pumping more blood to the brain? In any case it is not long before beat fatigue sets in and my mind is worse off.
This happens to me with higher BPM music e.g. drum & bass or techno, but with lower BPM and a little melody (but no voices) I can listen for 10-12 hours while coding without beat fatigue.
Re: Ask HN: Any scientifically proven techniques to boost concentration?
#168I don't know if it is scientifically proven or not. It just works for me.
I just use the pomodoro technique while listening to only this music every time I want to concentrate to get something done.
Re: Ask HN: Any scientifically proven techniques to boost concentration?
#169I wake up in the morning and play video games online for about 15 minutes. It wakes me up, it engages me, forces me to focus. I've been able to cut back all caffeine in the morning, only having some later in the day.
Any specific games? Genres?
Re: Ask HN: Any scientifically proven techniques to boost concentration?
#170Fast. Like more than 48 hours water only. First of all it kinda puts you in this “survival” state where while not feeling hungry per say, you’re on high alert and can concentrate like crazy. And after you finish you feel rejuvenated and excited. Amazing experience and can’t recommend it enough. Done it several times already (4 days fasts) and still having the same initial effect. After listening through all of the sc…
Disclaimer: Before going to a water fast, especially for a 2 whole days, talk to your doctor. Not everyone can fast, even for shorter times, and you might not know you are in that group. Ancedote: I have a friend that was hospitalized for doing a much shorter fast - daytime fast for religious reasons. As far as he knew, he was healthy enough for it and he was young at the time.
Or just really ease into it, and get to know how your body responds. And learning what to eat (and how much) when you break your fast is even more important.
For example, the latest studies show that multi-day water fasts are much harder on the female body than the male body, and can sometimes cause their hormone levels to go out of whack, so they don't recommend going longer than 12 hours when you're first starting out.