HACKER Q&A
📣 stayfocusedplz

How to stay focused with many interests and/or distractions?


In a world where there's so much you would like to do (make a game, write an emulator, build another product, write a book, whatever) how does one focus on their core product/idea... keep pushing that boulder up the hill?

It's tempting to take a hype train for a ride (machine learning, chatgpt, etc) or go after an interest you have.


  👤 surprisetalk Accepted Answer ✓
I’ve had success by maintaining a /now page with a roadmap for my upcoming year.

Whenever I find a new obsession or idea, I force myself to place it somewhere in my upcoming queue. I often find that the action of comparing shiny new things against my long-term ambitions makes me lose interest before I start!

I get a lot of satisfaction from moving items from “current” to “recent”. Plus, it keeps me realistic on what I actually can complete on a monthly basis.

[1] https://taylor.town/now


👤 markus_zhang
I feel it's a genetic strain. Some people just can focus without a huge amount of training. Some people need tons of effort to focus like an ordinary person. Maybe instead trying to do what is really painful and distracting, follow your genes and do things their way.