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It's getting harder to focus every day

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Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#131

Post by JumpinJack_Cash »

roysting wrote: post #115
oggreen wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a very interesting perspective but now that you mention it, I can't even think of the last time I daydreamed, even when I'm not on a device. Curious if phone usage or whatever doom-scrolling we do exhausts the same part of the brain that we use to daydream.

How would one daydream, i.e., imagine, when you have everything presented to you in 4k and you can even interact with it through games? You have to imagine to daydream. When you’ve been raised on YouTube since birth (referring to U.S. primarily “GenZ”) or you’ve formed your identity around things on TV (like most Americans) you didn’t have to imagine, daydream you just took it in, like everyone else that took on the…

> > How would one daydream, i.e., imagine, when you have everything presented to you in 4k and you can even interact with it through games?

You can daydream about being the protagonist of such actions which is not the same as watching other people doing it

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#132

Post by stephenbez »

Void_ wrote: post #85

I'm using an app called Focusmate (no affiliation) on a daily basis - scheduling 5-6 hour sessions per day. You talk to a stranger for a few seconds, say what you're working on, and after 50 minutes you say goodbye. They stay on the video throughout the session, but muted. It helps me focus because I always think "it's only 50 minutes". Also, I recently deleted Instagram and it made a huge impact.

Yeah I’ve done nearly 3000 sessions on there and it’s been a life saver.

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#134

Post by mark_something »

om8 wrote: post #28

> So how can I regain my ability to focus? Getting diagnosed with ADHD and taking meds did the trick for me. Not sure how relevant this is, since inability to focus was always an issue for me.

I don't think that the author has ADHD, because they used to be more attentive in the past. In the case of ADHD, it was also the case as a child.

I also got the diagnosis of ADHD (inattentive type) a few months ago, in the interviews they asked whether I also had these symptoms as a child. Not easy to figure out because as a child things like finishing things on time are not so important yet, and my high IQ compensated for a lack of focus. Only in secondary school it became a problem, and my grades dropped.

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#135

Post by ryandrake »

Melonai wrote: post #71
6031769 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using your phone in a cinema was, is and ever will be a massive faux pas. I have no idea at all why you think it might be otherwise.

Think the difference is between "using your phone", meaning calling someone and audibly talking to someone, thus disrupting the movie for others, and "checking your phone", which is just looking at it, though inaudibly, though there might be some amount of light pollution depending on the screen brightness. First one has and will continue to be taboo, second one however, in my experience, used to be viewed with dista…

As someone who miraculously doesn’t feel this urge to constantly “check” his phone, I have to ask: what are you people “checking” for, exactly? It’s still there—it hasn’t gone anywhere. Is it the notifications? Why not just turn them off? I can assure you that there’s nothing on your phone that can’t wait an hour or so until the movie is done.

Out of 10,000 people “checking” their phones, probably around 1 of them is actually waiting for something urgent and important. The rest are doing it out of pure addiction.

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#136

Post by JKCalhoun »

ssl-3 wrote: post #33
lardosaurusrex wrote: post #4

People often question me how I manage to focus for more than a few minutes and I'm always confused because back in the day I was constantly informed I didn't have any focus and needed to be treated (adhd). I'm not convinced attention spans themselves have changed; I think it has more to do with the fact that people's brains aren't defaulting to daydreaming anymore when bored. I think it's still an issue with people b…

There's only one important thing that I miss about smoking: A smoke break was an excuse that was tolerated by others, wherein I could go outside and just let my mind wander (daydream) with no particular goal for a short period of time. Daydreaming should be perfectly acceptable either way, but people seem to think it's weird (concerning, even) when someone spends a bit of time to stand (or sit) around while appearing…

People will tolerate a "daily run" (or walk).

I noticed other co-workers going to the gym during the day and realized I could take a break as well. That's when I started to take walking breaks. No one ever said anything.

(I quit smoking when my first daughter was born.)

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#137

Post by tchock23 »

Void_ wrote: post #85

I'm using an app called Focusmate (no affiliation) on a daily basis - scheduling 5-6 hour sessions per day. You talk to a stranger for a few seconds, say what you're working on, and after 50 minutes you say goodbye. They stay on the video throughout the session, but muted. It helps me focus because I always think "it's only 50 minutes". Also, I recently deleted Instagram and it made a huge impact.

Not sure why you got downvoted. This works for a lot of people. Doesn’t work for me because I find the video aspect to be awkward, but the concept of ‘body doubling’ as a way of enabling focus is well established.

[Editing to note that perhaps you were downvoted because OP lives in a place with internet issues and couldn’t use Discord to cowork with friends, so the video and bandwidth heavy approach of Focusmate isn’t a viable recommendation]

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#138

Post by radlad »

AaronAPU wrote: post #58
oggreen wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a very interesting perspective but now that you mention it, I can't even think of the last time I daydreamed, even when I'm not on a device. Curious if phone usage or whatever doom-scrolling we do exhausts the same part of the brain that we use to daydream.

I think its unfortunate people wear headphones while walking/running/biking. If you don’t, that’s however many minutes or hours of nothing but daydreaming (and hearing nature).

I find it impossible to daydream while focused on traffic.

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#139

Post by ryandrake »

jorisw wrote: post #125
noir_lord wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And to teach people that if they want something from me urgently, they need to call. There is a half way step (on Android at least, I assume Apple has similar) you can set "Do Not Disturb" and then white list the people who can message/call through the "Do Not Disturb" so you are reachable but only by people you trust/want to be able to reach you. > On the topic of watches, I used a smartwatch the company gifted me…

I do the Do Not Disturb + whitelist thing on my iPhone. I also disable any and all notifications of apps other than direct messaging apps. No group message notifications.

I’ve been 24/7 do-not-disturb mode with all notifications disabled, for the past 10 years. It’s been wonderful for “intentionality” and agency over my time. I use my phone when I want to do something on it, not when the phone beeps and buzzes telling me to use it.

I don’t even whitelist anyone anymore. If it’s important they will leave a message and I’ll get back to them.

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#140

Post by blurredabstract »

imp0cat wrote: post #74
safety1st wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Willpower's not the solution. When we isolated cocaine from the coca leaf for the first time, the world pretty much went insane. In those first years people were injecting it into their eyeballs and spines. The most popular beverage on earth in 2026 STILL contains extract of the coca leaf as a holdover from the days when it was laced with its namesake, Coke. People were smoking cocaine, ingesting cocaine, giving it t…

Not even a smartwatch? What's your opinion on fitness trackers (the passive ones, without display)?

To stick with the analogy: to me, your question reads as "What's your opinion on Speed?".
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