Lately I’ve sometimes had trouble focusing. My attention will sometimes drift to one of the internet’s infinite distractions. I’ve made a list of strategies I use to combat this, to better align my attention with my intentions.
- Using an outliner like Roam Research (see these snippets)
- Working with another person (e.g. pair programming)
- Working with another person present (e.g. independent coworking)
- Running a “distraction detection” program
- Mentally noting the distraction-kind and returning my attention
- Keeping my phone in my kitchen
- Writing on Go Note Go, my headless keyboard
- Attending meetings/talks in “clamshell mode” (laptop closed, no keyboard or mouse available)
- Making TODO lists
- And explicitly writing down the ^^active TODO^^
- Going to sleep at a specific time (e.g. 10:10pm)
- Exercising regularly (or at least aiming to)
- Stopping watching TV in the middle of an episode (ends of episodes are more addicting)
- 50 minute working sessions (e.g. focusmate.com)
- Stretching
- Taking short deliberate breaks
- Using Pomodoro timers for working sessions
- Using the “Intention” Chrome extension by DK
- Keeping all notifications on my phone turned off
- Asking the people I live with to get my attention first before starting a conversation with me
- Announcing my current active goal publicly (e.g. in a chat room)
- “Hide feed” Chrome extension, also by DK