In the midst of distractions-how do you focus if you need to get something done? Is there anything you do particularly?
Ask HN: How do you focus?
1–10 of 58 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus?
#2Music, Mountain Dew, and a Pomodoro timer. Can't get out of the seat if the timer is ticking.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus?
#3I close all unnecessary applications on my computer and put my work in front of me. If I need to use the Internet, I'll enable LeechBlock (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/leechblock/) (similar extensions exist for Chrome).
If I'm working on something that's particularly hard to focus on, I'll use the Pomodoro technique (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique) to keep my attention from deteriorating.
I make sure not to multitask. Multitasking makes it too easy to get distracted, and people aren't as good at multitasking as they think they are. Instead, I work on one important task at a time.
You may also want to try working in a public space such as a library. When people can see what you're doing, it makes it easier to stay off Facebook.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus?
#4If I'm having a day where I am not getting much done, I stop trying. I close and leave the laptop and my phone at my desk, take a notebook and a pen, and go to the local library, where I sit down and write for an hour or two a discussion of why I am not getting anything done, and what I can do about it. The next time this happens again, I repeat the process, except I also reread the entry (yes, you need to keep the journal around) from the last time, and see if there's any patterns.
Leaving all your electronics behind, taking an old, analog medium (pen, paper) and going to a place where people are required to be quiet (library, not office, not coffee shop, not co-working space) is essential to the process of figuring out what's distracting you.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus?
#5No social media accounts: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. I think that's at least half the battle.
Good advice from YuriNiyazov too. "If I'm having a day where I am not getting much done, I stop trying.". I think it's important to pick your battles. You won't be productive 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus?
#6I remove the distractions. Quit email, IM, IRC, work from home in a quiet place. Few people have my phone number, and they know not to call me unless their hair is on fire. The right kind of music can help too.
If I'm struggling to focus, I do some exercising, go for a walk (sunlight helps) or just take a break away from the work and come back refreshed. If I'm still struggling, I just give up and start again the next day (where possible - deadlines are a good motivator too, but not if overused). If I can't focus because I'm tired, I take a nap. I reserve caffeine for emergencies ("must get this done today") and with a two week cooldown afterwards (you'd be shocked what caffeine can do for you in a pinch if you haven't built up a tolerance from constantly abusing it).
Most importantly, look at what you're doing. I have little trouble focusing on something I want to do. It's the tedious bits that I struggle with, and so if I find something like that, I try to eliminate it as much as possible. This means picking your projects/clients/job carefully, and not rating money as top priority.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus?
#7I've always found some sort of sound blocking helps me focus, even in relatively quiet environments. I used earplugs almost 24/7 until it started I started having some issues with my ears and realized that's not really a good health practice. Since then I've been experimenting with sound blocking hunting ear muffs and noise isolating/cancelling headphones.
Also many years ago, I discovered this thing called Holosync which is some sort of binaural beats thing that's supposed to help your brain. After just checking the site now it seems really new-agey and psuedosciency and I'm not really sure if I would wholly endorse it. There are a bunch of different meditation "prgrams" that have a strict regimen, but then there's an epilogue CD with two tracks in particular (for Alpha and Theta brainwaves) that I just listen to on repeat and I've found help me immensely. Nothing else I've really experimented with has worked as well.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus?
#8Go somewhere that isn't a regular habit of yours. At home you have certain patterns of behavior, the same at work, your location matters.
Find a neutral ground when you want to focus and use that location or ones like it as a way to both isolate yourself from common distractions of your normal surroundings, as well as to set the scene for your focus.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus?
#9Before cutting off all your social-media sites (including HN), there's intermediate steps you can take to break the kind of reflexive habits that crop up without discipline:
1. If I just want to limit the temptation to Tweet or post about something on some service, I just log out of it. I might still check the service to read some things, but not being able to participate or respond sharply limits the time I spend on it.
2. If logging out doesn't work because you reflexively log in, due to your password being auto-completed when you visit a website, change your password to your accounts to a long gibberish string and paste it somewhere in a text file. Everytime you want to log in, it's 2 to 3 extra steps to find that password. Usually that's enough for me to not care to try.
3. If you're on Chrome, StayFocusd is a great plugin:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stayfocusd/laankej...
You give it a list of sites to blacklist, which you can either limit the total time you spend on them or completely block them for an hour or two.
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After that are longer term things...The Pomodoro technique is good...I use a static white noise app on my iPod and time it for 20-30 minutes, during which I don't even switch away from my coding environment for any reason (except for an emergency stack overflow lookup)
And meditation...it's hard to get into at first, but if you set a time for something short, like 5 to 10 minutes, it's not too hard to ease into. It's a great way to start off the morning because its a short, relaxing exercise involving discipline.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus?
#10Don't think about the work and just do it.
Often times you find an excuse to distract yourself because you think the work is tedious and annoying. So stop thinking about how annoying the work is and just do it.
Don't try to manage your tedium, don't use tricks, don't use any systems. Just sit down, tell yourself to stop whining and just attack the work.
Oh and modafinil. :)