Ask HN: How can I remedy scatter brain and information overload?

If possible, try to work on something of interest that will take time, focus and patience to achieve, like a painting or writing poetry or coding something way beyond your current skill level. That would help your mind to calm down and focus. Hope this helps.

But, I can understand and relate exactly to what you're going through. The only difference (imo) is that my over-active mind has actually led to some pretty bad anxiety that I'm just recently being able to cope with and manage. I was at a point about a year ago where there was so much stuff happening around me and so many things I was constantly trying to process (work, school, private projects, potential startup ideas, relationships, family, etc.) that I would end up in the hospital from panic attacks, seemingly from information overload.

What i did to cope was seek therapy - and I actually only did that for about five sessions until something clicked. I've since been able to simply prioritize things in my mind and ignore things I deemed irrelevant. This has helped immensely. Also, I've taken up meditation to really train my brain into not getting so distracted so I can focus on only one thing at a time when I need to.

You're definitely not alone here. We've spent our entire lives consuming information at a level that we're not actually designed for, it'll take some time to train yourself to slow down and focus on one thing at a time.

I would caution that the instruction is given by video recording by S.N. Goenka, who is a man with great faith in Buddhist scripture, and that faith pops out pretty strongly in places (e.g. karmic rebirth). If you can forgive that, he is careful to stress that the practical aspects of the technique and that they are by far more important than theory. I know of no other teacher, organization or venue that offers 10-days of intensive meditation instruction on a donation-only basis, and putting up with a small and frankly harmless amount of magical thinking has actually been good practice for me over the years.

This gets harder in an office environment, but usually some headphones, a don't bother sign, and shutting down all communication channels get's it into other people's heads.