The Art of Concentration

[version]

Anyone else have a real problem with concentration? I can sit down to do something and there'll be a million other things whizzing about in my head that I'm constantly chasing and trying to tie down. It's almost unbearable at times. I can't seem to focus on one particular thing. I'm always reminding myself of things I need to do or take a look at to the point where it's a struggle to do anything properly.

I imagine it comes naturally to some, and the internet probably doesn't help, but there must be some way to get on top of it. It feels like I'm constantly batting away the quantities of information that come at you on a trip, when even looking at a wall can feel like too much.

 

[luka]

This is where the autistics come up trumps. It's also where the ADD crew can come into their own funnily enough, particularly on Ritalin.

 

[shiels]

Fragmented attention and mild anxiety is the default state for us all now. Do you want some life hacks? I have a few that don't work

 

[shiels]

I wanted to do a thread about discipline but maybe this can be it. focused attention

 

[shiels]

Eight Tricks For Focused Attention And Productivity That Almost Definitely Won’t Work

1. Environment is a big one, the right setting, Tidy the place, turn your phone and internet off and tell yourself you won’t look at it for 3 hours later when it’ll feel like a reward
2. The right time, discovering when you have the most energy, are most calm. Mornings are best for me. Even on here ill have Longer posts in mornings with A Thought, shorter in evenings
3. Find a way to line up “I should” with “I want to”, the higher self with the impulsive self. How can you plug the long term goal into a reward system, where can you feed your need for validation
4. Finding Your Why and using M i n d f u l n e s s Practise to Return to your reason why
5. Tell someone who will hold you accountable, why deadlines work, a support network you want to avoid disappointing, or prove wrong, or make happy dependent on your personality type
6. Talk to yourself, “i want to have a wank but ill do that at 9pm because if i do it now ill lose momentum and life-energy”
7. Find the question or problem - Force of will isn’t enough, if writing, I need a problem to pull me, a question that needs answered, a person to impress, so i can feel myself making progress or the tug of interesting threads and also Visualise My Destination or the amazing person ill be and everyone fancying me afterwards, rather than this blind slow pushing against a wall
8. Panic - make not doing it a disaster

 

[catalog]

i think the pandemic has impacted my ability to concentrate on reading.

 

[sufi]

if i Alt-Tab enough times i always get back to the actual job at hand without mental manipulation or self- coercion :crylarf:

That's the eternal battle: balancing tricking myself into focussing, against prioritising through natural means such as whats at the top of my inbox or whos panicking

i recall a very keen comment by 3rdf a while ago about what music sounds like having too many tabs open in the browser? likewise how does incessant alt-tabbing reflect reality?