How do you stay focused at work?

Ask HN: Developers with ADHD/ADD, how do you cope? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19989627

Ask HN: How do you set a goal and stay focused? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23282855

Ask HN: How to Stay Focused at Work? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31221475

Ask HN: How do you stay focused and get s*t done? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22436856

Accept that "work" does not mean 8 hours a day heads-down actively writing code. Humans did not evolve to spend 40 hours a week staring at a box of light, mashing plastic buttons while slumped in a chair and if you can't do that it's an attention disorder. The six hours of what managers might call "non-productive" time in my day is requisite for the two hours of "productive" code-writing mixed in. That's 8 hours of "real work" in my book, and I would wager higher quality than that of someone who forces themselves to just grind out code against their body's will.

One very minor hack, I have a few little desk toys (piece of bicycle chain, a spinner, some plastic blocks). I used to switch to another task while waiting for those 2-5-10-60 second type waits (a pipeline, code compiling, whatever) and then find myself lost an hour later. Now I try to just stay in the task I'm working on, even if I'm waiting for the machine. Grab a toy and watch the progress bar.

Another thing I've learned from work somewhat, but primarily from exercise-- habits build amazingly quickly. It's easy to feel like "there's no point" in not following a distraction, because you'll never be able to fully break that habit anyway. But seriously, a very small amount of repetition makes a new "normal" way quicker than you'd ever expect. Thinking of giving in to a distraction? Just don't. Just this time, don't. Do that enough times, and you have a new normal. And even if you only do it the one time, it was a success.

Don't multi-task and have work you want to do.

If you're multi-tasking then you're doing a lot of crap work that should be automated, or at least processed sequentially. One at a time. Use a list, don't go to the next one until the task is done. If it can't be completed put it on a new list with reasons why. Follow-up. Prioritize.

If you keep getting work you don't want to do, change that. Distraction gets the best of me when I have no interest in what I'm assigned. (edit: clarity)

If you don't like what you're doing, change your relationship with it. Don't go through life just coping with your responsibilities, try to shape them to be responsibilities you enjoy doing. That might be at a new employer, new city, new significant other, etc.

Use tools (medication, timers, etc) to help build the path, but they shouldn't be the wheels you depend on to move through life. Use your head and your own two feet.

The TRUTH is...

- There are a lot of different systems, you need to find one that works for you.

- Nearly everyone struggles with trying to focus when there are so many things demanding our attention, prioritizing is what helps you focus on what's most important.

- You're human and there will always the temptation to switch to the new "app" because somehow a new company has figured out how to get things done. In reality, it's always a struggle.

- Reading a new article about how to focus is like reading a book of how to run a 4 minute mile. You need to get out there and struggle and find what works for you.

- AVOID the online BS that people tell you about how their day is so planned out. 4am wake up, 4:30am workout, 5am get ready, 6am study (it's mostly nonsense). Life is too unpredictable to be able to follow that 100% and if you plan your life like that you'll be let down when reality strikes and you miss something on your scheduled because a friend/family/coworker needed help with x.

How do I manage my life? One word, Todoist.

- Make projects, add things to those projects with a date that you'd like each done and give it a priority. - Look at the Today screen and do the highest priority things first.

What benefit does this system add?

- You'll always know what's most important and where to spend your attention.

What works for me is a playlist on Spotify.

Putting the earphones in and listening to music gets me in flow.

I don’t tend to listen to music at other times.

Completely contrary to Peopleware, but I find that too much silence is just as distracting as too little. I get disturbed by my own thoughts and the music trims them down enough to get the work done.

Define "focus."

Sometimes, when a problem is interesting, I find that my mind naturally stays on it for a couple hours at a time. Rarely longer but if it's very interesting, after a 15 minute or so break I'm ready to dive back in.

For less interesting things, occasional short breaks (maybe 5 minutes) help me keep my energy from completely disappearing. Falling asleep in the middle of something is bad, even if it's pointless "training."

So, by your definition am I focused or not? I assure you, either way, my employer has been happy with my work output.

Plan major work in 3 hour chunks. Have a snack and pee before you begin. Check texts. Mute notifications.

Have water and a drink of choice (coffee, diet cola, tea) prepared for your journey.

A big productivity booster for me was using /etc/hosts to block distracting websites. Like Hacker News haha

As someone with ADHD I self trained to stay on one thing until it's done, or I make a good progress. I make small breaks to look a bit online, respond to messages on the phone, eat, smoke. At about two hours I take a 10 minutes break. Than back to the stuff I am working.

It required some discipline, but now it is easy.

The harder is with context switches, calls, meetings, whether planned or not, colleagues asking for something, boss asking for something. Context switching kind of lowers my ability to be focused.

Whenever I feel sluggish at work, I take a few minutes to re-watch the hacking scene from the motion picture "Swordfish". This is enough to get the adrenaline going and gets me over the hump. Adopting this routine has had big positive effects: Finagling JSON/YAML, troubleshooting time zone bugs, performing hundreds of Docker builds, and performing daily maintenance on CI pipelines has been positively affected.

Don't multitask. Just do one thing at a time. To have full focus I turn off all notifications by setting my cellphone to do not disturb. Then I put on my headphones playing some cool background music without lyrics. The music helps me get in the zone most times. Essentially I don't multitask.

Personal hack: keep a physical journal and make it my central place to manage everything. Close tabs frequently and write down what information I actually need. No screentime for 60-90 minutes before sleep, and plan out the first 3 hours of the next day precisely.

When I really need to focus, I power up https://brain.fm/ . It's more effective than regular music for me, and within a few minutes I'm typically zoned in and in the flow.

Late to the party but:

Bose noise canceling headphones and Instrumental music: Mostly techno (jungle/house), jazz sometimes.

Random thoughts go on a list (pen and paper--no context switching on my computer).

At end of day, make a list of things to do first thing the next morning.

Once a week, go through all my notes and condense/backlog; ensure my roadmap lines up with my tasks and re-prioritize as needed. I try to have all my meetings on this day also, which gives me large blocks of time to focus on other days.

I don't do multi-tasking. When a new task comes in, I write it down on a post-it note and paste it on the laptop cover. So that I feel safe and comfortable from forgetting the new task and I can continue my current task.

physically moving around is the trick.

standing or sitting perfectly still for long periods is terrible for mind and body.

i have a python program on my laptop that is typically running 35 minute sessions. then it locks my computer, requiring password unlock, AND locks the keyboard for 5-10 minutes, making that impossible immediately without a reboot.

so i get up. walk around. space out for a while. think about things. beverage refill. space out more. sit back down. type in password.

when i first started doing it, i’d be furious at times when my computer locked. now it’s as natural as breathing. would recommend.

When I know I'll be working on mundane tasks I usually plan ahead to also have something interesting to switch to when I do my daily/weekly planning. I don't context switch that much during one task but when I'm stuck at something boring I find it easier to work on something else for a while and then come back.

Or, if that's not an option, I throw in a playlist and try to complete that task as fast as possible. And if that keeps happening I talk to my boss to work on something else instead.

I work from home with a personal system and my work system on the same desk/monitor. I swap keyboard mouse and monitor with a kvm to swap systems. I work in 2-3 hour intervals, and take breaks in-between to play games or putter arround the house and let my brain refresh a bit. It's done wonders for my productivity. It's also very helpful to set a goal for each work "session", aim for something you should be able to easily achieve during that time.

Pair-programming works wonders for this if that's an option.

Personally, what works best for me is a bit of a reverse. I will break my day up into 3 hour chunks but I plan my breaks more than those work chunks. I know what has to be done in those chunks. Focussing on each 20 min break means I can get all of my hackernews reading one, quick scan of my inbox and social media. It could also be a walk and a call with a friend or a cup cake :)

> I am very much multi-tasking

Don't.

Here's what has worked for me:

Workspaces - I use Ubuntu with Gnome, and I set up three workspaces: one for personal stuff like Hacker News, a middle one for work communications (email, Slack), and a third with the tools I actually use for my job. This way at least I don't have distractions staring me in the face all the time when I'm trying to work. A step better would be to use a separate computer for personal stuff and to keep it suspended or even powered off.

Social media - I removed all social media apps on my phone so now it only bothers me for texts and those annoying ubiquitous spam phone calls which I can easily ignore. I deleted Facebook ages ago and I hardly ever look at Tweeter.

Segmented browsing - I use Firefox for personal stuff and Chromium for work (I'm not a front-end web dev). When I need to concentrate I can run `pkill -f firefox` and get rid of that distraction while knowing that I can get my tabs back later.

Structuring tasks - Break tasks up into chunks that you can finish in an hour or two. Make lists and check boxes. It's important to feel like you're making some kind of progress. A big amorphous blob of project is a barrier to getting started again.

Accountability - I've been working remotely for 11 years now. I had a real crisis of focus and ennui early on, but then I went to my boss and asked for twice-weekly meetings. It really helps me to know that somebody is going to ask about my tasks, plus it's a nice social time.

Exercise - Nobody would mistake me for a fitness enthusiast but I concentrate much better if I do at least basic exercise every day. A walk around the block is great for clearing my head, and I sometimes get ideas while outside.

Housekeeping - Tidy up your workspace. Run apt-get updates. Keep some simple tasks around for when you have low mental energy. The equivalent of dusting or sweeping the floor.

Acceptance - I'm reading HN right now. It's okay, I can't sustain focus forever. Skimming the tech trades can give you a sense of what kinds of things other people are doing and what new tools might be out there. Keep track of interesting things using Pinboard or django-linkpile or something. Over my career I've had lots of times where the solution to a work problem came from something I read in a Slashdot or HN post or comment.

I read something by mid-1600s monk Brother Lawrence a long time ago. A novice monk was having trouble focusing during his prayer times and was told to go seek his advice. Brother Lawrence basically said don't beat yourself up over it (certain monastic orders would self-flagellate to try to purify themselves), but just acknowledge that you've lost focus, ask the Lord for forgiveness and strength, and get back to it. You will lose focus. It happens. Don't beat yourself up, take a short break, and get back to it. Speaking of which...

sometimes when I get like 3 hours of nonstop productivity in, I realize its because I left my phone in the other room

Mental math is great for training your brain to stay focused.

Also, do whatever you can to be healthy. That's quite a broad topic.

What has been a game changer for me is, getting the most important thing done first in the morning and not caring about how productive you are for the rest of the day. Also, changing my workplace and physically going the the office as often as I can

People don't multitask no matter what they claim. They task switch and take a long time to switch back. Don't allow yourself to go to non-work specific webpages on your work computer. That will help you to focus.

Note the things I want to accomplish in the morning (and review/carry over the unfinished ones from the previous day.

Block time on my calendar for a single task / Use a tool like focus@will and set a timer.

I really appreciate posts like this that remind me I am procrastinating haha. I need to subscribe to a bunch of youtube channels that produce content telling you to close youtube.

Caffeine and cycling through podcasts/books on tape for boring tasks and some music for when my environment is noisy. And lots of caffeine.

multitasking isn’t worth the overhead.