Ask HN: How do you stay focused? - pandasun
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rufius
For me, trying to force focus never really works. My standard is to take a
long walk if I find my mind wandering a lot.

Alternatively, if I can’t focus on a particular task, I’ll work on something
else for a while.

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kennxfl
This works for me too. One can never discount the therapeutic power of walking
or just doing anything else unrelated to the task at hand at least for a
while. Its how creative ideas materialize.

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oblib
I work in my office with the doors closed, no TV or music playing, and I
choose what I'm going to work on and get started on it.

I work until I reach a goal or hit a wall and then take a short break by
opening up some News or Facebook and read a bit to give my head a rest, and
then either get back to where I was stuck or move on to the next step in what
I'm working on.

I don't stress out over not being able to solve a problem on the first shot.
If I need to look for an answer to a question or solution to a problem I don't
sit there and try to figure it out on my own, I start poking around
Stackoverflow or do some searching for what I need to know first.

I almost always find what I need, and in those rare cases I cannot I will ask
a question wherever it's most appropriate and generally someone points me in
the direction I need to go. In the meantime I'll choose something else I need
to work on, generally something I know I can easily make some progress on.

I've found there is almost nothing I need to do that hasn't been done and
documented somewhere and it's a waste of time to try and "resolve" things that
already have a solid solution and I learn something every time I do that.

As long as I'm learning or making progress it's easy to stay focused and be
productive. Those short breaks I take when I hit a wall give me a chance to
come back to a problem and look at it with a fresh perspective. This way I
never feel like it's impossible to overcome, or, worse yet, I'm not up to the
challenge.

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cimmanom
Are you talking about big picture focus (working on the right things)? Or
little picture focus (getting into a flow state so you can finish the task at
hand)?

