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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

#371

Post by cloverich »

moebrowne wrote: post #358
Jtarii wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, some people are innately physically stronger than others. For some things its just the truth that some people have "the drive" and some people don't.

I don't buy this. I think people find it easier to make excuses about lacking some magical, unobtainable, abstract property like "the drive" than to actually put in the effort to improve themselves.

People over diagnose themselves so it seems more common than it is, but adhd is definitely real. Its not merely attention, its a set of traits like reduced working memory (and ability to utilize it) that manifest as difficulty in sustained attention / distraction. People who have it do a lot of other funny things than simply "get distracted easily", just ask the spouse of any person with add what _their_ coping strategies are and you'll get many humorous and perhaps unexpected stories.

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#372

Post by palmotea »

yifanl wrote: post #363
palmotea wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've noticed my ability to get work done is hampered when I am at higher doses of my ozempic. You should be using LLM agents anyway. It's the solution to every problem.

Can I have LLMs replace my GLP-1?

Yes. LLMs are the new zombo.com. You can do anything with LLMs. Anything at all.

The only limit is yourself.

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#374

Post by driverdan »

ckdarby wrote: post #223

It's really not that hard but people are addicted and don't want to admit it. Buy an Amazfit 6 watch, has alarms, clock, health stats, memos, weather, maps, and GPS workout. Turn off nearly all phone notifications. Do not allow any phone to AmaZfit notifications. Don't have your phone physically attached to you. You need your phone with you? Backpack. Never in pockets. All sudden it is incredibly easy to focus.

> Turn off nearly all phone notifications.

You should do this regardless, no watch needed. The only phone notifications that should be turned on are ones that could be urgent. Phone calls, maybe text messages, alarms, and calendar reminders. No email, no social media, no stupid random apps telling you about some discount.

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#375

Post by luskira »

I've tried multiple things to regain focus, the only ones that worked:

- blocking social media everyday til 2pm(i like working from 5-1 everyday), i use freedom app for that

- having a "distraction" tablet with 2fa on the social media I use, so I can only use distracting things there and not on my computer and iphone.

- when work requires just thinking, I bring my remarkable tablet to a coffeeshop or coworking and work just off of it.

- for avoiding staying behind on social media trends, etc, i built Analog Reader to read newsletters, best tweets from specific people and articles i save for later. It becomes a printed newspaper I can bring anywhere. I have a hacker news edition that runs everyday that showed this article for today and thats why im here lol.

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#376

Post by m463 »

projektfu wrote: post #157

Hallowell and Ratey, who write about ADHD, suggested a new entity for the current world: VAST, the variable attention stimulus trait. It is like ADHD but it is culturally induced and not presumed to be due to an innate deficiency in executive function. "Beyond the sources of biologically based ADHD, there are a lot of people who act as if they have ADHD but on close inspection turn out not to have the diagnosable con…

...as I sit here reading the experienced/insightful/funny posts on hacker news instead of working on more pressing matters.

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#377

Post by 0x20cowboy »

Levitz wrote: post #301
MrDrMcCoy wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please, no. GLP1s leave you worse off than when you started if you stop taking them. Weight is also not necessarily the factor that leads to sleep apnea; I got diagnosed while having a healthy weight in my 30s.

>Please, no. GLP1s leave you worse off than when you started if you stop taking them. This doesn't seem factual, or at the very least, not that simple? https://www.epicresearch.org/articles/two-years-after-stoppi...

Not the OP, but there was a lot of talk that glp1 had a negative effect on bone density and in older people it was especially problematic.

There is evidence that is not the case though https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8878541/

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#378

Post by m463 »

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…

I get a lot figured out in the time between waking and getting out of bed. I do have my phone around, but just to jot things down.

Also in the shower, but then my phone isn't handy and I lose a few thoughts.

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#379

Post by lrvick »

dofm wrote: post #366
lrvick wrote: post #359

I gave up my smartphone 6 years ago because I concluded the conveniences it offered came at cost of too much of my attention, freedom, and privacy. My ability to focus was just gone, and this magic device was not making me happy or productive anymore. Within a year, my hyper-focus abilities I remember having as a teen starting flowing back. In the last 5 years I have done the best work of my career, including creatin…

> Within a year, my hyper-focus abilities I remember having as a teen starting flowing back. Mine are gone for good. But I no longer want to be able to hyperfocus, because it is invariably a sign I am losing control. For me, hyperfocus is dysregulation that benefits others and not me. I just want to be able to think straight, keep my house tidy, and not spend a couple of hours every day wishing it would turn out to b…

I have at various points of my life been diagnosed with downs syndrome, chronic depression, anxiety, ADD, tourettes. Almost certainly undiagnosed PTSD and tests indicate maybe mild autism. I do not think anyone actually knows, and I stopped letting such fuzzy labels define me. I can say for me the drugs never fixed the root causes. They just made me care less about having control. A passenger in my own life.

Once I recognized constant connectivity and internet media as mild poisons like alcohol, and regulated those, I found myself a lot happier without drug dependence. (YMMV, every brain is different)

I can focus on whatever I want now. A mechanical puzzle, work, an open source project, a video game, my family, my friends, or typing this comment to a stranger on the internet I empathize with. My motivation is seemingly endless now too.

Get rid of the doom scrolling poison and give your brain time to reset and recalibrate. Spend several hours a day away from the internet. I cannot promise it is the only change needed for you but I promise strategic life change experiments will provide a better chance of a positive outcome than waiting to die.

Re: It's getting harder to focus every day

#380

Post by pmg101 »

thewebguyd wrote: post #292
rubyfan wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The VAST thing speaks to me. I am capable of deep focus work but often am subject to constant interruption and multiple concurrent urgent demands. During a work week I get a lot done but often feel pulled in a lot of directions like I imagine ADHD might feel like. During the weekends when I am not occupied with a task I often fall asleep. This happens on the first day or two of vacation also. After a few days my brai…

> like I imagine ADHD might feel like. Definitely feels like that, with the exception of task initiation. I am capable of deep focus work, but I can't control when (or where). I can block out time on my calendar all I want, if my brain says "Nope, we're not doing work today" then I'm not doing work, interruptions or not. It becomes a real disability in the workplace when everything is defined by more or less rigid sc…

Yes, I've found it to be completely incompatible with managers and the corporate world.

I had some success in small startups where I was left to my own devices and built cool stuff whenever I felt the urge to do so.

In corporate jobs I just have to lie and describe smooth and steady daily progress while actually working in sudden fits and starts, but it's hard to maintain the lie.

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