
Ask HN: How you focus on the project? - bourn
I am following advice given in Deep Work by Cal Newport. What do you do to remain focused on the task?
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nailer
I make sure goals are achievable in a small amount of time, if not I break
them down further.

Eg, 'move from payments to subscription' is a big goal, a smaller one might be
'understand Stripe's subscription API' and 'modify UI for subscriptions'.

I also look at different facets of the problem. UX vs backend vs devops
concerns so my works remains diverse and interesting (I'm assuming you're full
stack here).

~~~
beat
For any serious home software projects, I do a lightweight Agile process with
Trello. All tasks need to be doable in a single work session of four hours or
less - preferably less than one hour. So very fine-grained work.

And I stopped keeping a backlog. If it's important, I'll remember it. But I no
longer have meltdowns and analysis paralysis trying to decide what to do next
from that hundred-task monster list.

~~~
nailer
I like 4 hours too. This is realistically the largest amount of real
programming most developers do a day, sans interruptions.

~~~
beat
Yep. That's definitely about the maximum mental exertion I can do in a
sitting. The important thing, though, is breaking my tasks down to things that
I can do in a single sitting. If I have to spread the work out to multiple
sessions, I have a hard time picking up where I left off.

A lot of my ideas about how to work were strongly influenced by Cal Newport
and Matthew B Crawford.

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xft
Schedule every minute of the day. Disconnect from social media. Mute
smartphone. Focus on the process, not on the result. Take small steps steadly.

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segmondy
Find an accountability partner.

