At the most basic level, distraction is the opposite of focus. If you want to do deep work, you must eliminate all distraction and just focus on that one thing you are working on. So no HN while working for instance and even something as seemingly innoncent as grabbing a snack randomly can mess with it big time and start a distraction loop. Other than that you can practice focus deliberately, like for example zen meditation of counting exhales 1 to 10 - you will notice how easily distracted you get, but it's normal - you just get yourself back to focus on the most boring thing. And make sure you get good sleep, it's easy to become chronically sleep depleted and live in denial that no more sleep is needed, but it actually is needed badly - and it's very difficult to focus, if I get worse sleep I especially pay attention I do not have anything distracting around and usually choose to work on one big thing as multiple smaller tasks can prove to be too distracting to handle well.
Ask HN: How to Focus Again?
61–70 of 109 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to Focus Again?
#62A lot of people in this thread point at motivation or mental health issues. The issue is likely not so complicated. You have forgotten how to focus. We live in a world where we are constantly distracted. This is forced on us. The apps we use compete over our attention, our workplace expects quick replies over Slack, our free time is always accompanied by a smart phone pushing us notifications. These effects are getti…
This makes a lot of sense, thank you. The expectation to always be available on teams, to reply to email quickly is very strong at my workplace. My apple watch means that even if I'm making a cup of tea, or using the restroom I still see when people are trying to contact me, or when one of the systems sends an alert so I'm never truly offline.
Re: Ask HN: How to Focus Again?
#63A lot of people in this thread point at motivation or mental health issues. The issue is likely not so complicated. You have forgotten how to focus. We live in a world where we are constantly distracted. This is forced on us. The apps we use compete over our attention, our workplace expects quick replies over Slack, our free time is always accompanied by a smart phone pushing us notifications. These effects are getti…
Huberman has an episode explaining the brain workings of procrastination. Give it a watch/listen to pick up a few tips. https://youtube.com/watch?v=K-TW2Chpz4k Edit: here are some summaries: https://podcastnotes.org/huberman-lab/leverage-dopamine-to-o... https://healthnews.com/family-health/healthy-living/andrew-h...
Thank you I'll (try to) give this a watch!
Re: Ask HN: How to Focus Again?
#64A lot of people in this thread point at motivation or mental health issues. The issue is likely not so complicated. You have forgotten how to focus. We live in a world where we are constantly distracted. This is forced on us. The apps we use compete over our attention, our workplace expects quick replies over Slack, our free time is always accompanied by a smart phone pushing us notifications. These effects are getti…
> You have forgotten how to focus It could be due to aging. As people age, it gets harder for the body to release dopamine in anticipation of getting something we done, especially for things that we are familiar with. As a result, one loses focus because of no trickling joy. "Been there done that" in a way is truly a curse. My own cure is always finding new things to tackle, and tackle only fundamental problems. Of c…
You could be right, I'm soon to turn 40 so maybe my brain is just slowing down and I can't ask as much of it as I used to. Hopefully a better diet and more exercise can counteract that to some degree.
Re: Ask HN: How to Focus Again?
#65@keikobadthebad already gave a good answer, but I'd like to expand upon it a bit. > Sounds like the work might not lead somewhere you really judge is useful, or judge will be painful. As someone with ADHD I have realized that my executive function goes to zero if I think doing something isn't worthwhile. Not if I consciously think it's worthwhile, but if I know deep down that it's pretty much pointless. Thankfully my…
> All that to say, it sounds like whatever you have been doing has been fruitless, or at least appears this way to the man in charge of your brain. Either you haven't been hitting consistent milestones, or the payoff isn't really rewarding.
You know, this really hit home. I have very much failed to set milestones, or even properly break down the project into smaller chunks - in my mind it's just "the project" and sometimes it seems huge. I'm going to map it all out, then tackle it in smaller chunks. I'll hit the easy, quick tasks first - maybe those small wins will give me the motivation to tackle the bigger tasks. Thank you.
Re: Ask HN: How to Focus Again?
#66[flagged]
Re: Ask HN: How to Focus Again?
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I have realized that my executive function goes to zero if I think doing something isn't worthwhile. Not if I consciously think it's worthwhile, but if I know deep down that it's pretty much pointless. Thankfully my brain is a pretty good judge of what is worthwhile. Thank you for putting this in writing in the way that you did. As someone who went undiagnosed for the first 37 years of their life, this is almost th…
Isn’t that constantly a thorn in your side though? Life is full of things that can feel intrinsically useless. I’m constantly having to convince myself of the worth of things in order to finish them even when I may innately disagree with them. It feels like a never ending struggle.
I'm the same way, and can answer: lots of things feel sort of useless, but so long as they have a deeper purpose I'm all for them. Like I usually don't have a problem with motivation for taxes, even though they feel sort of useless, because I know they're important in general. Although this isn't totally reliable... you're right, sometimes something feels too useless and I have trouble starting it. But usually it's fine.
Re: Ask HN: How to Focus Again?
#68Just to mention if you're in the UK (I'm assuming so) you can exercise the Right To Choose to ask for a referral to an external organisation like Psychiatry UK. RTC is still "free at the point of use", you're just making the elective choice to be referred there. https://psychiatry-uk.com/right-to-choose/ (It can be easy to misread because you can also approach PUK and pay for assessment. However, that doesn't affect…
Thank you, I am in the UK and I'll follow up on this.
Re: Ask HN: How to Focus Again?
#69A lot of people in this thread point at motivation or mental health issues. The issue is likely not so complicated. You have forgotten how to focus. We live in a world where we are constantly distracted. This is forced on us. The apps we use compete over our attention, our workplace expects quick replies over Slack, our free time is always accompanied by a smart phone pushing us notifications. These effects are getti…
Don’t sleep with your phone in the bedroom.
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Re: Ask HN: How to Focus Again?
#70i have ADHD, you have a different life than before (you have more responsibility, less free time, and are older(less energy)), interesting new things make easy to stay focus now life is more stressfull and static than when we were 18 some of my tool belt (some of them are from professionals), but is maybe a good starting point, some of this won't work on you. select space for work and space from leisure, and place fo…
Thank you. Lot's of great advice here, thanks for taking the time to write this all out.