

Ask HN: Strategies/tactics to keep focus? - galfarragem

I have more interests and curiosity than I can handle and I&#x27;m having a really hard time keeping my focus. As an example I recently discovered the book &quot;Learn you a haskell for greater good&quot; and it was an epiphany. By the other hand I promised myself to focus in JS, that&#x27;s why I&#x27;m investigating Purescript now.. In the end it is just a never ending dabbling.<p>To help me focus I try to follow these strategies&#x2F;tactics:<p>a) GTD (I even created one implementation - if  interested check my github).<p>b) make blog posts (not CS related) that use some of my dabbling.<p>c) news diet as strict as possible.<p>What strategies&#x2F;tactics do you use to keep focus?
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lstrope
A good pair of IEMs. Headphones still leak outside noise even with the best
noise cancelling. A good seal with a good pair of IEMS pretty much cancels out
any ambient noise in the room.

This is the #1 distraction remedy for me that helps me maintain focus.

Given an empty room and nobody around I can get a lot of shit done.

From this engineers perspective every b-hole with VC funding thinks `open
floor plans` are awesome and exposes their engineers to the constant
distractions throughout the day for little or no reason other than to be
trendy.

If I were an investor I would never invest in a company that puts their
engineers in an open floor plan UNLESS that floor was only 100% engineers in
which they would all be telling each other to STFU if they were too loud.
Telling people in other departments to PLEASE STFU rarely ever happens, and
when it does it is usually scoffed at.

So many companies in the bay area are pissing their money away faster than our
water can be consumed because of this.

I really don't understand the higher level objective.

Conway's law still applies - open floor plan or not. Companies should maximize
productivity - they seem to only realize the benefit amongst marketing and
sales teams, leaving engineers wondering "WTF mate?"

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kzisme
I enjoy doing work in bursts and making sure to take small mental breaks
between tasks that have to get done.

This basically ensures you have a fresh mind for each task/problem you are
facing.

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purescript
One thing I find surprisingly effective is that I write a todo list on paper
every morning, and check items off as they get done. I keep a longer todo list
of personal goals on a Trello board.

