wake up early. Take a walk when you start getting distracted. Don't multi-task too much. Someties work with one friend in the same physical space on the same thing - you'll have expectations towards each other of seeing new shit getting done.
Ask HN: How do you focus?
41–50 of 58 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus?
#42Focus@Will provides streaming music to help you focus -- https://www.focusatwill.com/
TED talk by the founder about focus -- http://www.tedxbrussels.eu/will-henshall/
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus?
#43My personal list:
* Active noise cancelling phones and Mozart seem to help. I notice a big difference. I even don't like classical music, but it seems to help me focus better than other types of music.
* Mindfulness meditation tends to help me focus even outside of meditation, especially in tasks that require sitting and thinking for >5 minutes about a problem, like maths or topcoder tasks . It literally makes me realise "oh crap, I am not thinking about the problem I supposed to be thinking".
* I muted all sound notifications everywhere. Probably muting visual notifications would help as well.
* Pomodoro technique
* Get 100 grams of L-theanine with each cup of coffee. L-theanine is natural ingredient found in green tea. It removes jittery effects of coffee, while keeping high alertness. http://www.gwern.net/Nootropics#theanine . Modafinil is good as well.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus?
#44I have ADD/ADHD so it's very difficult. Some things might seem extreme to some people.
GTD - Getting Things Done is an invaluable book/workflow/system. The GTD workflow map helps if you're familiar with the system: http://ideas2followup.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/gtd-workfl...
Objective-- One thing often overlooked, undervalued, and even stressful is knowing that your focus is correctly directed. (GTD helps) This is a lot harder than it sounds, and usually determined by the most unqualified and biased person for the job; yourself. Mitch Hedberg explains it best: "I play the guitar, I taught myself how to play the guitar, which was a bad decision... because I didn't know how to play it, so I was a shitty teacher. I would never have went to me." Steve Jobs has an amazing technique to stay on top of this: “I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”
Environment-- Having literally nothing going on around me. No sounds, music, movies, TV, radio, people, moving objects, windows to stare out of, etc. Even voices in the next room that are basically inaudible distract me. Silence any possible notifications/apps/programs that distract you, and be anal about it. Recreational email/social usage is a time suck, for business purposes 4 hour work week goes into a system for appearing responsive while not being distracted.
Health-- Diet and exercise matter. Meditation is important. Breaks are important. Most of the hardest problems I encounter are solved away from the computer. Going outside is very important. Ironically under health, one reason I loved smoking was the excuse to go outside. Without that excuse I have to force myself to remember to go outside, and always find some excuse not to. Find your excuse and/or force yourself. Wake up early.
Other stuff-- Multitasking is a killer. If you have to multi-task make sure you move on only once the current task is completely finished/solved, and that you only create tasks that are broken down correctly into solvable chunks that don't require other outside input/action. Tasks that involve using the web should be done with one tab open only, and I try to avoid the habit of creating more tabs like the plague. Once I open more than one tab without fail I suddenly have 10+ tabs open (related to a task), and don't want to shut them for completely illogical reasons. I tell myself "I'll get around to this tab once I'm done over here" which almost never happens.
Self-sabotage is a killer, and can undermine any potential efforts you make. Find out why you're sabotaging yourself. This is a road that most people avoid travelling because it requires finding/embracing your mental/emotional problems, and is therefore best done by an independent third party. ("What mental/emotional problems?" I can hear you asking yourself.) Everyone has them, and it's usually something they'll completely overlook such as fear.
Have barely touched on everything I wanted to, but may extend it to a blog post someday.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus?
#45http://www.pomodoro.me/ do stuff in chunks of 25 minutes of uninterrupted time.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus?
#46I work from home. We homeschool our 4 kids. My office is in common area in middle of 1700sqft house. I've got level 12 ignoring skills.
Did you simply adapt to circumstances, or were you previously blessed with such high ignoring skills?
I've definitely leveled up over time, but have always been able to selectively process input :)
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus?
#47Thinking in rhythm can help you focus. You run a clock in your head with a rhythm pattern imposed on it. You create anchors in your short term memory at the start of the rhythm cycle that tell you what you're currently thinking about. If your mind strays while you're working, your thinking clock should keep running. Then you can remember your last anchor and return to that point to re-focus yourself on what you were working on before you strayed. Thinking in rhythm makes you more aware of the temporal aspects of your thinking. Over time, you begin to gain control over when you think.
For a more in depth discussion, see http://bit.ly/JIXwSf
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus?
#48I have ADD/ADHD so it's very difficult. Some things might seem extreme to some people. GTD - Getting Things Done is an invaluable book/workflow/system. The GTD workflow map helps if you're familiar with the system: http://ideas2followup.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/gtd-workfl... Objective-- One thing often overlooked, undervalued, and even stressful is knowing that your focus is correctly directed. (GTD helps) This is…
Great post, it's like you're describing my life - minus that whole "solutions" thing you've got going on :)
Regarding sounds and noises during work, have you tried ambient style music or noise machines in the background, for example:
http://musicforprogramming.net/
I've honestly gotten to the point where I can't sit down and get any work done without it, but I'm sort of paranoid that it might be a distraction and I'm not doing my highest level thinking with it on. I have no evidence to support it, just a concern. It may just be that whole "I get my best ideas while showering/jogging/driving" thing, though.
Also, if you don't mind me asking, would you say you've effectively "cured" your ADD with just the techniques you describe, or are you medicated as well?
Anyway, I'd love to read that blog post if you get the chance.
Re: Ask HN: How do you focus?
#49I change jobs. I don't have a Facebook or Twitter account. The televisions were trashed over a decade ago. My home page is my personal KanbanFlow page, modified to follow Mark Forster's Final System. It almost works. I make sure not to overcommit myself. A study shows that scheduling has to be considered independently of effort, ability and experience. If I am not doing what I think I should be doing, I try to change…
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Re: Ask HN: How do you focus?
#50Focus cannot be maintained for long hours without some sort of intervention from stimulants like Caffeine. There is a limit to our biology. I like to use Yerba Mate (http://www.theroadtosiliconvalley.com/personal-development/y...) to help with long focus. For me, it works better than tea/coffee.
Once you are focused, choose your battles (as mentioned above ref Peter Drucker). Actually you should choose your battle well before you begin.
I find that whenever I get distracted by a thought, an idea or something else that needs to be done I try to remove it from my head by offloading it into a trusted source. This allows me to continue focus on what I'm doing knowing that "later" I can come back to it for review/pick it back up. This is also what the GTD method teaches you. I use an iOS app called GSDfaster => http://www.gsdfaster.com/ - note this is an app I initially built for myself to solve this need.
As some have stated above, sometimes the day feels like crap maybe due to lack of sleep or whatever. Or maybe it was a crap start to the day. It usually means you got wedged into a bad mood. It can last few hours if you don't find a way to get out of it. What works for me is usually a 1 hour walk, bike ride or a gym session. Gym session is the winner here to wake you up both physically and mentally releasing endorphins and "restarting" the brain in a better more focused mood.
GOTO Line 1.
Hope this helps :-)