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How I regained concentration and focus

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Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#151

Post by jader201 »

koheripbal wrote: post #87
synergy20 wrote: post #65

Block websites will help definitely. another "threat" is when you have a few kids, your daily life is cut into pieces with random and sometimes strong background noises 24x7x365, not much you can do there. personally, that impacts my focus the most and there is no cure, and it usually lasts for about 20 years when kids are finally into colleges. obviously there are many good stuff out of raising kids, and I enjoyed i…

This is why many people with kids want to physically return to the office - fewer distractions.

I've WFH for the past 8+ years, my kids are now 18 and 15 (so they were 10 and 7 when I started WFH).

They can definitely be a distraction, but I was able to minimize it by having an office with a door + setting reasonable boundaries. Also, they're out of the house at school for many hours (except for COVID -- that was a bit tougher, but that was the case for everyone).

I have no regrets. One of the reasons I WFH is to have less time on the road and more time w/ family. My oldest has said that he's glad I WFH, and that he didn't like me being away when he was younger.

Of course, every person/family is different. But for me & my family, I think minimizing the distractions in other ways while WFH + accepting the remaining distractions was worth it in the end.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#152

Post by marginalia_nu »

woweoe wrote: post #123
lloydatkinson wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have some examples?

"Just read through the debates of what gets proposed for inclusion, and then think about the stuff that's outright deleted."

I kinda also would like to see a concrete example.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#153

Post by andrewljohnson »

ge96 wrote: post #140
namaria wrote: post #120

Turning off all notifications on my personal phone was a life changer. No longer I feel like I'm wearing an electronic collar. Giving everyone who has your contact information access to your attention is poison to the ability to concentrate. Another big thing for me was cutting down on infinite scrolling, blogs and videos and spending a lot more time with long form content (mainly books). Attention is our most precio…

My phone is always on mute (no vibrate either) Only alarms to wake up

Having a family and responsibilities made this infeasible for me. Most apps on my phone are denied notifications, but people can still text/call me.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#154

Post by Zanneth »

Aaron Swartz wrote a blog post about the news[1] and just how terrible it is for the brain. Reading his post had a major impact on me—since then I have always thought differently about the time I spend online.

It’s interesting how people, including myself, try to justify various addictions. How am I supposed to stay informed about important topics without the news? How do I know how to help people in need without knowing what’s going on? There are much, much better ways than reading CNN/NYTimes every day. Also, there really is nothing new about the human condition today compared to a hundred years ago.

[1] http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#155

Post by insightcheck »

stephendause wrote: post #79
mprime1 wrote: post #25

If you’re looking for a ‘lean’ source of news (just the facts, no commentary) try Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events (RSS feed available)

I would recommend people use sites like allsides.com or ground.news to read from a wide variety of sources across the political spectrum. Any one site (even one edited by a variety of people) will have its own set of biases, so I find it best to visit Web sites that contain links to coverage of the same event from a few different sources with different biases.

I think it's better to manually assess bias and think critically about how news articles report information. The sites you linked are interesting, but had some major flaws.

For example, AllSides includes Breitbart as a source. While it identifies it with the maximum value to the right, it doesn't give a barometer of credibility. For a reader deciding whether Breitbart is worth reading, one should closely examine credibility, not just political leaning. PolitiFact and Media Bias/Fact Check discussed the credibility of Breitbart at length [0] [1].

Then for ground.news, the way it portrays bias is also relatively simplistic. The most prominent indicator is left/center/right, but biases have a lot more nuance. It's more useful to account for how certain publications take certain policy stances. Leanings can be anti-establishment, pro-establishment, socialist, neoliberal, pro-consumption (e.g. Wired), or anti-consumption, and this information is lost when relying on left-center-right categorizations.

The best way to do this is to manually select a few publications that are high on factual credibility, write down their specific biases or leanings, and compare stories across the personally-curated selection of publications. You then personally have more control and understanding of the articles you are presented.

[0] https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/jul/28/stella-imm...

[1] https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/breitbart/

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#156

Post by namaria »

andrewljohnson wrote: post #153
ge96 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My phone is always on mute (no vibrate either) Only alarms to wake up

Having a family and responsibilities made this infeasible for me. Most apps on my phone are denied notifications, but people can still text/call me.

I also have family and responsibilities. But I am very careful whom I give unfettered access to my attention.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#157

Post by yao420 »

sanedigital wrote: post #101
1-6 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m curious because I’ve had kids early. Will I ever be able to catch up with peers who’ve decided their focus would be on their job and forego having children later in life?

Maybe. Maybe not. But no matter what those other people do, they’ll never ever be able to get more youthful, energetic years with their children and (hopefully) grandchildren. All that money and even Elon can’t buy time. I had kids relatively young for a yuppie male (27) and while that was 100% the “right time” I would have done it earlier if I had known how great they are.

I’m really struggling with this right now.

I’m turning 33 next month and really want children. I have endless memories of my dad and grandfathers teaching me amazing lessons and being best/strongest men I have ever been around. I want to fulfill that role that for someone! We didn’t have much money but camping or diy building is something fondly reminisce on and made me who I am.

My partner is 25 and is not decided on children yet due to also growing up poor and and having a rougher realationship with their fam. We’ve lived together a year now but she recently got an IUD and was happy about the ‘10 years of freedom’.

To her kids is a ‘probably after I finish all my goals/traveling’.

We were recently vacationing in Barcelona and met 3 young boys at the hotel and played a game of uno with them in the lobby. They lived in the Bay Area and I imagine their parents were techies, they were indian, 6-12yrs, long hair, well spoken, had skateboards, and wearing tie dye.

I CANNOT stop thinking about them.

I’m considering an ultimatum but I love her so much.

Sorry for the rant HN, I just needed somewhere to say it.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#158

Post by jader201 »

lampshades wrote: post #137
acdha wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reads as somewhat mean spirited, which I hope you didn’t intend. I thought his advice was supportive – they very clearly acknowledged not being a parent but then pointed out that there isn’t a clear cut productivity gap. That kind of reassurance seems useful since people can easily tell themselves they’re irrecoverably behind and worry far more than is helpful.

Maybe it is. You’re responding to a mentally broken man.

I'm sorry you feel broken. Virtual hugs from an internet stranger.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#159

Post by unity1001 »

yao420 wrote: post #157
sanedigital wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe. Maybe not. But no matter what those other people do, they’ll never ever be able to get more youthful, energetic years with their children and (hopefully) grandchildren. All that money and even Elon can’t buy time. I had kids relatively young for a yuppie male (27) and while that was 100% the “right time” I would have done it earlier if I had known how great they are.

I’m really struggling with this right now. I’m turning 33 next month and really want children. I have endless memories of my dad and grandfathers teaching me amazing lessons and being best/strongest men I have ever been around. I want to fulfill that role that for someone! We didn’t have much money but camping or diy building is something fondly reminisce on and made me who I am. My partner is 25 and is not decided o…

> I’m considering an ultimatum but I love her so much.

Dictating, forcing things is not the way to go for such things. You cant force children onto an unwilling mother. Its best if such things are handled amicably and with consensus.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#160

Post by LeonM »

andrewljohnson wrote: post #153
ge96 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My phone is always on mute (no vibrate either) Only alarms to wake up

Having a family and responsibilities made this infeasible for me. Most apps on my phone are denied notifications, but people can still text/call me.

Not sure about iOS, but with Android you can create exceptions for selected contacts in the do-not-disturb mode.

I've added my family members to that exception list, and leave the phone on do-not-disturb mode 24/7.

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