Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How I regained concentration and focus

innoq.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 429 posts

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#81

Post by frostwarrior »

giantg2 wrote: post #76
frostwarrior wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your current job can't motivate you, work on a side project or look for another job. And don't be the weakest link in the (faulty) chain. It's leaves a better impression by notifying external inefficiency and quitting because lack of change, rather than being fired because your motivation and productiveness withered in silence.

Yeah, I have side projects. They aren't anything that I could make money on though. If I had a better option I would leave.

Personally, I wish I could have more side projects to post them on my Github and use them as a developer portfolio.

I have a few years of experience as a Web Dev, but sadly my GitHub is barren from code.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#82

Post by bishopsmother »

jansan wrote: post #30

I think routers should have more fine grained settings, so I can block social media during weekdays, HN on weekdays except lunchtime and evening, and allow my children only to access their 5 websites that they need for homework/study during a few hours in the afternoon. This would help me a lot.

even with your router's domain blacklist, it may not be so easy to block all social media (specifically, apps[0]). I don't imagine cigarette manufacturers are keen on making it easier for people to quit smoking either.

[0] https://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/tech/facebook-app-and-un...

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#83

Post by lloydatkinson »

woweoe wrote: post #61
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)

Wikipedia is incredibly biased in terms of what news it cherry picks though. Just read through the debates of what gets proposed for inclusion, and then think about the stuff that's outright deleted.

Do you have some examples?

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#84

Post by fuzzfactor »

Kye wrote: post #73
kzrdude wrote: post #36

I don't think there is a silver bullet or a tick box solution. You have to want to stop. Change your behaviour.

[deleted]

If you have trouble doing this on your own, an alternative often not considered is going away to camp for the summer.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#85

Post by closedloop129 »

Did he regain concentration and focus? It's more like he just reduced distractions. That's not the same.

What if being distracted is not a bug but a feature and his mind doesn't want to continue the path of constantly writing books? Instead of eliminating distractions, it could be more helpful to find the activities that don't create the desire for distractions.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#86

Post by giantg2 »

bumby wrote: post #72
brokenkebab2 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's fair: it's absolutely possible to be motivated by the recognized fact that you provide for your family, and still have healthy friendly relations with colleagues, and be interested in a long-term success of your employer. It's also absolutely possible to create an ugly monster of organization while cheering up your team with whatever we-change-the-world mission.

I agree with you that it's possible. It's just been my experience that the people who take that mindset tend to slack off once they realize they can get the same paycheck to provide for their family while also doing less work. If your internal utility function is to maximize money and minimize effort, that's going to occur more often than not. To buffer that, management needs to hold them accountable, but that's easi…

"It's just been my experience that the people who take that mindset tend to slack off once they realize they can get the same paycheck to provide for their family while also doing less work."

I think it's mostly the people who realized the company has deceived them, either in the company values/mission or the "pay for performance" scheme being BS.

There shouldn't be anything wrong with someone just doing their job for the salary. If their performance falls below what's expected (and clearly defined) for their level, then that's a problem. They shouldn't be penalized for not doing extra work when they aren't being rewarded.

Employers need to have compensation models that make sense too. I was once told I could get a promotion if I consistently worked 1 hour longer everyday. That's a 13% increase in hours for a 7% pay raise, for a position with more responsibility and expectations. These managers are either idiots or predators - anyone with an MBA should understand that's a shitty value proposition. Either way, they lost my respect.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#87

Post by koheripbal »

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.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#88

Post by giantg2 »

bumby wrote: post #67
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think it might be a bad habit to view everything through the lens of a financial transaction Unless you want to get promoted into management... Hire new people to do the inglourious work.

> Hire new people to do the inglourious work. But I'm assuming this means hiring people without the same transactional mindset? Otherwise, there will just be endless employee churn as they realize there's nothing in it for them. It's hard for me to get on-board with a management approach that effectively says, "I don't want to do this stuff because I want to get paid but it's okay for you to do it because I don't car…

"But I'm assuming this means hiring people without the same transactional mindset?"

Our company tries to outsource the more boring/routine stuff to overseas contractors. The results vary.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#89

Post by bckr »

djohnston wrote: post #38

I've managed to consolidate all my distracted news consumption to HN but indeed I need to break myself from this reflexive habit.

I'm in the same boat! I feel better because my twitchy fingers always lead to learning or discussing something new and interesting, but they're still twitchy fingers.

Re: How I regained concentration and focus

#90

Post by frostwarrior »

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.

I get it, but you already have a job. I assume you are be pretty busy, but at least you already have a secure source of money and you're not against the clock or anything like that.

You don't need to spend all day in a class like a university student. An hour a day dedicated to lectures, practice and taking some notes with pencil and paper* can do wonders on the long term.

As for your wife, maybe you can talk to her and ask her to leave you alone for some specific times, unless it's urgent. Or ask her to send you a message instead of talking so it doesn't interrupt your focus so much.

* Some research on learning has proven that taking notes like that is way more effective than typing on a keyboard.

Post reply on HN