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How I regained concentration and focus

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Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#391

Post by Zanneth »

wildmanx wrote: post #387
Zanneth wrote: post #154

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 kno…

> There are much, much better ways than reading CNN/NYTimes every day. Reading those once a day is actually pretty good, let's say at a dedicated time. In contrast to many-times-a-day-let-me-just-check-the-app. The latter is just causing dopamine rushes. The former keeps you informed. What did you have in mind?

Swartz recommends reading books or long-form essays instead, and I agree. It doesn’t even matter if they were written recently. Like I said earlier, barely anything about the human condition has changed in the last hundred years. For example, I recently read “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius. Even though it was written over two thousand years ago by a Roman Emperor, you could almost mistake some parts as being written two days ago by a millennial. There is an infinite amount of wisdom and knowledge to be gained from some of these old works that is impossible to earn by just reading the news every day.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#392

Post by powerhour »

andai wrote: post #297
Digital28 wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He also says the pandemic didn't affect him, but honestly, whether it was Long COVID or an indirect psych effect of isolation, I've had extreme issues concentrating ever since 2020 that have been absolutely bullshit to manage.

Re: wide-scale reports of cognitive decline since lockdowns: > In lab animals, isolation has been shown to cause brain shrinkage and the kind of brain changes you'd see in Alzheimer's disease — reduced brain cell connections and reduced levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which is important for the formation, connection, and repair of brain cells. https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/how-isolation-a.…

Course we don't know if that would still be the case for rats that were capable of communicating with others online.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#393

Post by hi41 »

Zanneth wrote: post #154

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 kno…

Could you elaborate on the news sources you use to read about the current events of the world. I am looking for a podcast that in 30 minutes gives a summary of the weekly news or 10 minute podcast that gives a summary of the daily events. This way one doesn’t have to visit the news sources such as CNN on New York time websites.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#394

Post by password4321 »

giantg2 wrote: post #74
frostwarrior wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't have the skills to switch to a different company Go and learn. Skills are not set in stone. > I don't perform well remotely, and my wife won't consider relocating I understand that. I don't know you, but maybe a nicer setup with more (not too direct) sunlight can make it better?

"Go and learn. Skills are not set in stone." Sure, but learning takes time, which I have little of. It's also much easier for some than others (getting significantly more difficult as I age). The main remote issue is that my wife interrupts me to do stuff or answer questions throughout the day. I also feel I'm slower to learn remotely. I think that if I'm an expert in the tech already, then remote could work.

Work remotely, but leave your house.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#395

Post by rnotaro »

andrewljohnson wrote: post #166
namaria wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The issue for me is, for example, my wife drops my kid off for a camp and then the camp calls me in an emergency. So I can’t just only take notifications from known callers.

On most recent version of Android, they have a whitelist feature where repeat callers (2 times withing 15 minutes) can bypass DoNotDisturb.

Only my close family are whitelisted.

Most time people call twice during an emergency. You could also say to call back again in case of emergency in your voicemail message.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#396

Post by ineedasername »

briHass wrote: post #348
ineedasername wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world moves faster than experts write books. The US has an important election coming up in a few months. Regardless of which part of the political spectrum a person is on there are issues most will care about a great deal that will be extremely impacted by the outcomes of the elections. Issues that are way too recent to get coverage in books written by experts. Like it or not, engagement with civic society requir…

Sure, but how many people are looking up congressional voting records, examining budgets, and reading thousands of pages of court decisions and the text of proposed legislation to form honest, independent opinions? It sure seems like most people use the internet and tv/cable news to reenforce their red/blue preference by watching shows or reading articles/posts that focus on how horrible blue/red is. Even for promine…

I never said that being a responsible member of civic society was simple or required no work.

Complaining about needs needs to put effort into finding good sources of informations sounds about the same to me as if a colleague was complaining about having to read the documentation and latest release digests of software they use. That's the job.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#397

Post by blangk »

ben_w wrote: post #273
landemva wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You suggest I do what? I could talk to people about two decades of NATO encroachment on (shall not be spoken) R. Or discuss with people how in the weeks prior to conflict, VP Harris was in Munich and said Ukraine should join NATO. Or discuss how comedian and Vogue model Zelinsky said Ukraine should re-acquire nuclear weapons. While true, none of those fit the rythmn of the mainstream narrative.

I'm suggesting you limit your news to things which are actionable rather than affective.

How does one achieve this goal?

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#398

Post by leokennis »

mberning wrote: post #93
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…

Having kids in the house is like being in a damn WWI trench with shells exploding over your head constantly. Ok, maybe not that bad, but it's horrible for your ability to get anything meaningful done. And then by the time they hit the sack and you finally have a few moments peace, you are worn out and ready to hit the sack yourself. My ability to burn the midnight oil has gone to zero basically.

Wow…extremely relatable.

Sometimes I only want to price compare something online and order it, which should be a 5-10 minute process. It’ll take me 30 minutes spread over 10 3-minute bursts.

In between I need to end fights, clean faces, fetch out of reach toys, lift them out of a chair, lift them into a chair, no the other chair, hand them a stuffed animal, pick the stuffed animal up from the ground, clean food from the floor…

By which time I just order on Amazon. Yes maybe I pay more but at least I can order in one click and be done with it…

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#399

Post by swah »

EForEndeavour wrote: post #21
hvs wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's complete. I was drinking 4-5 cups of coffee a day and my brain was a cluttered mess. Now it's just mildly cluttered.

On a much smaller time scale, I have noticed that when I skip my usual morning coffee (say, running out of coffee, going for a run with an accountability buddy, or traveling and staying in a "coffee desert"), I feel remarkably clear-minded and calm, even though I crave the smell, taste, experience of coffee. When I let it last, this mental calmness lasts until early afternoon, when I'd usually get coffee #2 of 2, as…

I kinda feel the same. I wake up very calm (most days), and in a few minutes, not sure if its only the caffeine, or the mind worrying about the day... I start to "rush" and worry.

Maybe I just got used to the feeling and have to feel it to start working.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#400

Post by naasking »

tootie wrote: post #227
Zanneth wrote: post #154

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 kno…

Man, I don't get it. News is bad for you so become deliberately ignorant? Don't get distracted by the world so you can work more? It's like saying traffic lights distract you from driving.

> It's like saying traffic lights distract you from driving.

It's more like saying that a mindset primed on "The Fast and The Furious" is not suitable for good driving.

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