Ask HN: Air gapped computer to avoid distractions when being creative?

Software tools to temporarily remove distractions haven't been successful for me. I just turn them off in frustration.

I'm often using ~50 individual software/plugins, so it can also be frustrating to open a project and see update notifications or that a plugin somehow broke since I last opened it. It's rare that any of these updates provide any meaningful value, too. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

In general, I imagine a separate desk and device could be beneficial for getting in the zone as well.

All of those notifications about new features in product like Photoshop are a bummer because they always show up when I feel I am under the 8 ball and really need to finish something quick. Many of these apps take too long to load already and it just adds insult to injury.

I sometimes do software development when I expect to be disconnected from the net and assemble all the tools I need, local copies of documentation, make sure I have added dependencies ahead of time, etc.

What’s to stop you from just reconnecting internet? If you went through different tools to accomplish this already, and you bypassed them all, why will this be the successful tool?

Not to be too much of a downer, but I think you will fail if you try it. You already said that you see notices that you recognize aren’t helpful and you don’t ignore them today. Not to be critical, but what you need is self control, or a recognition that maybe you should find different hobbies. I know it’d not an answer you want and this is tech where there’s a solution to all human problems.

I have ADHD and that makes it extremely hard to focus. On work or on play. By the time work is over I’m tired and more easily distracted. I used to beat myself up trying to focus on “productive” hobbies. What can I build. What can I make. Etc. except I too was quickly distracted by notifications on my computer and phone and things going on in my house… at some point I just realized that my desire to accomplish something with these hobbies wasn’t serving me.

Idk if this actually applies to you, only you can know. It’s really hard to accept that maybe a productive hobby isn’t for you - it was for me - but it could set you free. HN is full of stories of people who turned a hobby product into a lucrative business or a famous open source project. The internet is full of YouTubers who make crazy contraptions in the weekend. It’s so easy to get FOMO and feel that you’re just as capable.. if only you can focus on the evenings and not be distracted. But some people (like myself) will be distracted. I know if I just turned the internet off, I’d just get up after a while and find a distraction that isn’t a broken Plug-in.

If you’re easily distracted, you need to manage yourself, not your environment, because there will always be a source of distractions. I hope you find happiness with your hobbies and yourself.

Making it hard for yourself to be bad, is good, generally. For catastrophic temptations, like alcoholism, I have heard that some keep a full sealed bottle around so that temptation is unvarying, however; and find that keeps them from starting again.

Started with simple journal writing. Then went on to do some creative works. Then got offline copies of books to help me do creative works.