
Training Your Focus  - edragonu
http://www.dragosroua.com/training-your-focus/
======
ljlolel
I have recently been experimenting with a different method. I'm not sure
taking the joy out of what you focus on is the best idea anyway.

Instead of figuring out how to set up the perfect set of variables to trigger
flow (focus) for long periods of time, I do something else.

I purposely interrupt my work every 10 minutes for a long (5+ minutes) break.
Most accounts I have read say that it takes 10-20 minutes to get into a state
of flow to be able to do some real, hard work. But with the limitation of only
10 minutes of work, I force my brain to learn to get into flow much more
quickly (definitely under 5 minutes, and I think much less but it's hard to
measure!).

I only started doing this the last couple of weeks. I'm amazingly more
productive, and the scope of my projects are increasingly ambitious.

I am posting this to see if anyone has had a similar experience. So, have you?

~~~
jexe
Totally. More generally, setting lots of small, tight deadlines really helps
force my focus, if you're a deadline-driven type maybe you might feel the same
way. I ran into the term "forced efficiency" the other day and it pretty much
encompasses this practice: [http://gtd.marvelz.com/blog/2007/06/27/maximize-
productivity...](http://gtd.marvelz.com/blog/2007/06/27/maximize-
productivity-2-forced-efficiency/)

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michael_dorfman
Needless to say, meditation contains a whole tradition of techniques to teach
people to train their focus. I recommend it to anyone who hasn't already tried
it-- it's worth encountering, even if you ultimately decide it's not for you.

Coming from a different direction, the meta-cognitive therapists also have
some techniques around focus and directed attention.

~~~
chrismear
I enjoyed this recent post from Dan Benjamin, introducing meditation:

[http://hivelogic.com/articles/an-introduction-to-
mindfulness...](http://hivelogic.com/articles/an-introduction-to-mindfulness-
meditation)

In particular, this line:

"One final thing to keep in mind; you absolutely do not have to be a Buddhist
to meditate in this way, and this practice won’t turn you into one, either."

Which isn't to knock Buddhism in the slightest, but just a reminder that it's
possible and useful to consider the practice of meditation as a separate thing
from the Buddhism, or mysticism, or whatever-else-ism that it's often packaged
up with in popular consciousness, and which might put off some people from
trying it.

~~~
caffeine
It's even better than that.

Real Buddhists are likely the most expert meditators you can find. And
meditation, like anything worth doing, benefits from good teaching. Buddhism
is not an evangelical religion. Thus a real Buddhist teacher will be happy to
teach you meditation without requiring you to "profess your faith" or any of
that silly nonsense.

This is a gift. Not only can meditation be a "separate thing", but those who
are the most expert will be happy to _unpack it_ from their own beliefs and
teach it to you as separately as you like, _because_ of those beliefs.

Isn't that beautiful? Does it remind you of open source at all?

(Also - if you decide to go further with this, you might make up your mind
whether there is some _reason_ Buddhism and mind training correlate so highly,
beyond history.)

~~~
burke
> Isn't that beautiful? Does it remind you of open source at all?

Yeah, but not the GPL.

~~~
caffeine
Exactly :)

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yannis
This will probably be shot down, but I stay focused - and yes get the flow too
- by living on coffee, pizza and cigarettes when working on crushing
deadlines. Alternate the pizza with your favourite junk food every other day.

~~~
edragonu
No need to shut you down for that.

I certainly remember doing the same things in my early days. The only downside
of this - for me, of course - was that your physical layer (your body, that
is) will sooner or later let you down if you're fighting against it like this.
Otherwise, if those stimulus are keeping you aware, just go for it :-)

