Ask HN: What helps you focus and get things done?

music ... and a deadline

also: it being "interesting" helps a lot

As someone with ADHD, I’ve found the key thing is to learn what level of stimulation your brain needs for certain tasks.

Too much, over-stimulation, and you’ll find your focus being pulled in multiple directions to a point of confusion, frustration and anxiety. I believe this can also lead to migraines.

In that situation you have to reduce something, maybe it’s ambient noise, maybe you need to pause your music, maybe you need music without lyrics. Maybe the lights are too bright. Maybe you have too much on your plate. Or, maybe your chair is hurting your back, and you need to replace it.

To little, under-stimulation, and you need to find the right type of stimulation to aid your brain. For me, lyricless music, is perfect for deep thought coding. But not enough for washing the dishes or cooking, a conference talk or similar however is great.

You may need meds (talk to a Dr/Psych), or maybe just some tea/coffee.

Exercise can help. You can get an under desk treadmill, and walk even at a gentle pace for a few hours to keep your brain active and alert.

You have to experiment and learn what _your_ brain needs. It’s not quite the same for everyone. What works for me, is often the exact opposite for others.

And remember how much sleep, what you’ve eaten, and how well defined your task is all contribute.

For me, only thing that has helped get immense focus is Pressure. Pressure under deadline. Pressure for not failing.

The only issue is I am not able to replicate it as needed

Ooph, back when I was a pianist, I caught myself thinking random crap WHILE DOING A CONCERT all the time; then suddenly you think "dude wtf, you're in the middle of a concert, snap out of it", and then the shock from the context switch of going from autopilot to "shit where am I in the piece" always resulted in me messing the piece up ...

Some great answers here (I find AmericanOP's the best).

Not a complete answer from me (and not formally diagnosed, but I strongly relate to everything mentioned here), but here is a list I have called "Things that help with work"

Before work:

- Wake up early (but not at the expense of good quality/quantity of sleep). If possible, without an alarm clock.

-Start the work day as soon as realistically possible, before distractions start piling up

-Start with the hardest task. Not the easiest (unless it's an easy part of the hard task). (doing unrelated but useful easy tasks may be a good strategy when tired/unfocused, but at the start of the day it will probably end up wasting valuable limited energy and being counterproductive)

Preparation / During work:

- Drone Zone / ambient coffee shop sounds, or mellow coffee-jazz on youtube

- tea (chamomile/passionflower/melissa or other similar distraction-mitigating beverages). coffee can be positive or negative depending on energy / time of day.

- Water. Lots. Easy to forget, makes a huge difference.

- Oxygen. Lots. Also easy to forget, also makes a huge difference.

- Use pomodorros: a 25-minute slot where you commit to uninterupted focus on a task, delegating any distractions to be dealt with after the pomodoro.

- For added effectiveness, commit out loud to do "Task X and only task X, to the exclusion of all others" before you click 'play' on the pomodoro.

- GTD to keep track of and prioritise tasks effectively

- Log work done in work diary (with regular desktop prompts to do so if necessary). Helps you more easily pick up from where you left off.

- incense, for some bizzare reason. (assuming able to keep window open)

- air heater (WARNING: counterproductive in the abscence of oxygen!)

- undistracting view

- study-buddy

- Pleasant location, preferably with other people working / not interested in you

After work:

- No work after X time

- Plan ahead. If possible, also plan "where" to work, based on the task - choose best environment, create positive association/mood for work

- Sleep. No "revenge procrastination". Ensure that if you wake up reasonably early tomorrow, you will still have gotten enough quality/quantity of sleep. Lack of sleep compounds very easily.

- Rest on weekends (pet projects are fine, but not "work" work).