
Ask HN: What can I do to stay focused in the short term? - lewisflude
I used to be amazing, spending 6 hours plus a day on guitar, programming, other hobbies. I work full time and am finding it very hard to focus when at home, I usually start doing something then tab over to Twitter, Facebook, Gmail.
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asiekierka
An idea I heard on IRC is to use the 5 minute rule.

Start doing something for 5 minutes. Anything productive. Only five minutes.
It's not that long, is it? Now, if you still don't feel like doing it, you're
tired; take a break. If you're lucky, you will start feeling like doing it and
continue!

The point is to get immersed in what you're doing. Small steps can also help -
do many small things, not few large things.

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turboquant
I also agree with a timer method, one of which uses a kitchen timer
(Pomodoro). You commit yourself to nothing else for 15 minutes, and stop
immediately once the timer goes off. You'll find yourself adding intervals
once you train your focus back to longer hours. Also, proper nutrition and
hydration is very important (good one, Mz). Best of Luck!

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jyu
During your lunch break or commute home, plan out your priorities to get done
at home. It might be something like 30 min guitar, read up on Google's
BigTable papers for 30 min, check twitter/fb/gmail for 30 min, and then goof
off guilt free.

Make sure you're spending time to exercise, meet with friends, develop
interests and passions outside of work.

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gregcohn
RescueTime's "get focused" feature actually works pretty well, if you don't
hack it. It lets you define certain sites as distracting and then set a timer
that will block them if you try to visit during the time in question.

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Mz
You haven't said anything about what changed. So, blind stab in the dark:

Eat right, take your vitamins, make sure you have good sleep habits, exercise,
and stay properly hydrated.

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dmackerman
I have this problem myself. When I work at home - which is usually only 1 day
a week - I have a hard time not getting distracted.

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captaincrunch
Ritalin.

