I don't focus. I get obsessed.
I start with some idea, and until I can confirm it works, or it is actually wrong, I can't stop.
This idea is there, in the background, calling for attention, so it's not something I can just ignore.
Ask HN: How do you focus on work for long periods of time?
61–70 of 148 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus on work for long periods of time?
#62I put HN into /etc/hosts and time to time I find myself automatically opening a new tab, quickly typing the URL and starting at a connection refused page. And how often that happens is concerning, but that little trick helps me to realize that I should probably focus on something else instead, like doing few push ups.
I reduced considerably these monkey brain moments.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus on work for long periods of time?
#63Here’s a few things that I have found really helpful recently: 1. Put your phone in another room and only check it at scheduled periods. For me, after breakfast I put my phone out of sight until lunch and then back in the other room it goes until 3:30 PM. 2. Try to keep separate spaces for entertainment and focus. For example at your desk only do productive work like development or paying bills. If you want to watch…
Focus Toolkit episode: https://youtu.be/yb5zpo5WDG4
The whole series is excellent. The actionable items are clear and well defined and I started following some of them last year. The benefits cannot be put into words.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus on work for long periods of time?
#64For HN, goto your profile and turn on “noprocrast”. HN will then limit the time you spend here and not let you back in for awhile.
I didn't know that!
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus on work for long periods of time?
#65Setting short-term goals works very well for me. Create the skeleton of such and such class, refactor that method, send that email I have pending and things like that.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus on work for long periods of time?
#66Having a very strong desire to get the work done is often all that I need to block distractions and focus for long periods of time. When I am less motivated, I accept it and decide on a time when I will start again. I reckon that owning the outcome helps with desire.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus on work for long periods of time?
#67Here’s a few things that I have found really helpful recently: 1. Put your phone in another room and only check it at scheduled periods. For me, after breakfast I put my phone out of sight until lunch and then back in the other room it goes until 3:30 PM. 2. Try to keep separate spaces for entertainment and focus. For example at your desk only do productive work like development or paying bills. If you want to watch…
It's also good to make habits, they work the same way. I recommend checking out Atomic Habits, or at least this YouTube video [0].
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus on work for long periods of time?
#68My problem is more the opposite… once I am focused on something I find there hard to stop. But indeed if I am working on something very boring I struggle to do it for long period of times (mostly because the take doesn’t require any real focus and the mind wanders), luckily for me I don’t often engage in boring tasks.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus on work for long periods of time?
#69this to me is a sign that i'm not working on the right thing. sometimes i'll go weeks without really doing anything at work because nothing feels engaging. other times a problem really grabs me and i think about trying to figure it out all the time. i don't fight these waves anymore. let them come and go.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus on work for long periods of time?
#70If you can only focus for 15m at a time, then work on increasing that naturally.
Make yourself a timer app that will increase your work time by N every day before sounding an alarm, then browse/do whatever. When you come back you restart it and do another block.
As other people said, it's the possibility of interruptions that break your concentration. I'm working in game dev (Unity specifically), and it's really good at breaking your concentration. It'll take a long time to compile, randomly crash or take time importing things etc, which then makes you want to not sit there and watch it.