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How to focus on one things? I am so distracted, any tips would help

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How to focus on one things? I am so distracted, any tips would help

#1
I've been encountering a frustrating pattern whenever I attempt to engage in a focused activity, like reading a book. It seems that within just a few lines of reading, my mind starts buzzing with reminders of other tasks clamoring for attention – emails to send, ideas to jot down, and various errands to tackle. It's like a constant stream of distractions vying for my attention. In fact, even as I'm writing this message to you, I found myself pulled away mid-thought to have a conversation with my wife about something entirely unrelated. It's becoming increasingly perplexing because I can't pinpoint exactly why I'm feeling so easily distracted

Even with ToDo list or app, I have to remember to put into the list, I forget.

Re: How to focus on one things? I am so distracted, any tips would help

#4
I had the same problem. After years of long work hours and debilitating stress as the CTO of a health tech company, I abruptly quit my job and traveled/decompressed for a year - it didn’t solve the problem. I was even more distracted and felt like I had lost my edge.

Through a serendipitous situation, I discovered Vipassana meditation. The 10 days of silence - no phone, no eye contact, no books/distractions - along with the surprisingly simple technique, yielded incredible results for me. Some of the other people meditating with me for 10 days were also tech executives. The tremendous power of mindfulness is something for each individual to experience for themselves.

The 10 day course is free, entirely funded by past students. (Dhamma.org)

I personally recommend staying away from ADHD medications if you don’t have severe attention deficit issues (e.g. inability to have even short conversations).

Re: How to focus on one things? I am so distracted, any tips would help

#5
My only suggestion is to resist any possible temptation to use addictive stimulants for this, (unless legitimately prescribed of course, but even then they do carry risk and maybe shouldn't be the first thing you try). May seem to work at first but not worth it in the long run by far.

Re: How to focus on one things? I am so distracted, any tips would help

#6

I had the same problem. After years of long work hours and debilitating stress as the CTO of a health tech company, I abruptly quit my job and traveled/decompressed for a year - it didn’t solve the problem. I was even more distracted and felt like I had lost my edge. Through a serendipitous situation, I discovered Vipassana meditation. The 10 days of silence - no phone, no eye contact, no books/distractions - along w…

did you have any close calls of thinking about giving up before the 10 days were over?

Re: How to focus on one things? I am so distracted, any tips would help

#7
Alex Soojung-Kim Pang - "The Distraction Addiction"

I found it to be immensely helpful at a certain point in my life when I had to deal with huge workloads, and I was not ready for that (too young, lack of character back then, etc.).

Regarding the part about how to organize oneself: I found the GTD model of managing projects and tasks, and practicig it over the years to be the solution I could recommend to anyone.

Remember, those things take time. Invoking changes in oneself is a matter of years, not days. But it's certainly worth it! I can't imagine leading my life the way I was doing it 15 years ago. That would not work well... Today is a different story. Let's just say it's much, much better. Good luck!

Re: How to focus on one things? I am so distracted, any tips would help

#8
I have this problem also and Pomodoro technique is a god send. 5 minutes in I am always ready to do something else but then refocus.

Productivity is how many pomodoros I have done on that task. Otherwise, I am just all over the place and nothing quite gets done.

Re: How to focus on one things? I am so distracted, any tips would help

#9
>I've been encountering a frustrating pattern whenever I attempt to engage in a focused activity, like reading a book. It seems that within just a few lines of reading, my mind starts buzzing with reminders of other tasks clamoring for attention – emails to send, ideas to jot down, and various errands to tackle.

Have you ever watched any videos on adhd symptoms?

Everyone is different, but meditation is how you train yourself to increase your focus skill. but if you have adhd, you have to invert the rules of meditation.

The goal of meditation is to have your mind and body turn off. You are essentially doing literally nothing. But for an ADHD person to get there, you have to try to pay attention to a billion things at once and exhaust your brain into turning off.

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