[michalstanko]

It scares me how much this reminds me of myself. I don't know how I was able to keep my job (and keep the roof over my family's heads) with my habit of not being able to concentrate on work at all because the minute I need to think a bit harder I immediately switch to reading news, HN or watching YouTube, only to finish my work late in the evening to save my ass (on good days).

[klondike_klive]

Not that I've conquered it by any means, but I find narrating helps for me to maintain a thread of activity. Lots of my work involves switching between applications & cloud folders and any break in that can trip me up. I find if I talk to myself as if I were explaining what I'm doing (ie a tutorial but not as rigorous) that really helps. I used to use screen capture software to take time-lapse videos to give myself the impression I was being watched/monitored. But that isn't as effective as I know I'll probably never watch them.

[projektfu]

Yeah it is definitely for me a reaction to feeling overwhelmed. There's just that bit of activation energy that is missing so I slip back to equilibrium of doing easy things.

Adderall has helped, so has some behavioral approaches, but nothing is a cure. For me, trying to eliminate distractions is either a distraction itself or ineffective.

Structured procrastination is useful, at least I am practicing piano or getting more fit instead of sitting around watching TV or reading dumb articles and forums.

[FeepingCreature]

High BPM music does it for me.

[imtringued]

Music works for me too. When I listen to music, the feeling of choosing between "fun" and "work" disappears because I get to do both. Once I am focusing on the work I no longer pay attention to the music and I don't stop having fun with the work.

The biggest problem is that I am randomly bored and watch a youtube video. It's just 15 minutes after all, how much could it hurt? and then I waste 2 hours which is 105 minutes more than I had when I started watching that video. Maybe I should play mobile games because those have those pesky daily energy limits that stop you from playing more.

[jamal-kumar]

Same, or mostly just mixes that go on for an hour or two which I can put on so I don't end up distracted clicking through tracks and discovering shit I want to get. I also have to remind myself to set time aside for checking tracklists on tracks.

Helps I got a side gig playing music haha but my bookmarks on that are gargantuan. The dancehall reggae section alone is massive. I never listen to that and get stuff done, really the best concentration music for me doesn't matter the BPM it just has to be mostly free of lyrical content. So work music is mostly electronic or classical.

What are you listening to that's high BPM for work? That hard techno shit out of Europe lately is a lot of fun, Anetha is incredible [1]

[1] https://youtu.be/qVRj8-t4PwI