Losing focus: Why tech is getting in the way of work | Hacker News Reader

Losing focus: Why tech is getting in the way of work

bbc.co.uk

103 pointsSimplyUseless41 comments

As a developer, I find it hardest to focus when I don't really have anything clear to focus on. On the other hand, if I have clearly specced small tasks that need to be done, it's quite easy to focus on those, even when there are distractions. If I hit a roadblock or realize I have to re-plan something, that's the moment when I usually lose focus.

Also, I'm not good at focusing in the design / planning stage, if the new feature is kind of ambiguous, and I'm not exactly sure about the requirements. I think it'd help a lot if I had some clear strategy about the design process. Sometimes, though, not actively thinking about something let's the brain sort everything out, and the right solution kind of emerges on it's own.

Currently I'm working on a task 'design and implement the billing system', so here I am on HN.

Edit: I also use https://heyfocus.com/ which bounces me back to work, if I 'accidentally' drift off.

Whenever I start losing focus, I write down the tasks I'm handling at the moment and move them up and down trying to assess priority. I also do that when I stop working so I know where to pick up when I start again. I found out that most of the time when I'm spacing out it's because I can't decide on which small task to do first.

When it comes to design/planning, I like to do it away from the computer, with pen and paper, I sketch away what I'm imagining and walk back and forth while trying to figure it out. It's usually not a hard spec, it's just something I look to when I have no idea of what to do.

That's funny, I have the hardest time focusing on a long list of small, simple 'todos' than working on design/planning for projects. I've always assumed everyone else is more or less similar in this regard, even though experience tells me otherwise. It's refreshing to hear someone actually state this.

> Sometimes, though, not actively thinking about something let's the brain sort everything out, and the right solution kind of emerges on it's own.

This is the only thing I miss about cigarettes. Myriad solutions came from cigarette breaks. I know that other types of breaks work just as well, but it was just something about that specific type.

Maybe it was the enforcement mechanism (the chemical need basically) that made sure that sufficient breaks were taken? I notice the smokers at work have 2-3 breaks throughout the day every day while the non-smokers basically don't have any breaks. Maybe because they're worried they'll look like they're slacking off while the smokers don't care, they have a physical need to attend to?

Reading the article suggests another reason why someone might lose focus, what started out as reporting on research that indicated a change in behavior morphed into a shopping experience.

The procession:

1. Interesting but perhaps uncorroborated research

2. Unsubstantiated possible implications of the uncoroborated research.

3. A list of consumer goods and their marketing claims.

I can't keep focus because there is a different article every day on HN about how to keep focus in a new way.

For me personally it's not so much incoming notifications that distract me, but my colleagues. We're a small team of iOS and Android developers (about seven people total), and there's an almost constant buzz of random activities about various subjects - 90% of which are not directly relevant to me, but sometimes they are.

Plus I have a colleague that Demands I Look At His Code Now from time to time. On the one side I want to indulge him, on the other - could you wait until I'm not in the middle of something? Or not show me an update every five minutes? The headphones are there for a reason.

I think there are a lot of ways you can help out the "look at my code now" guy. Even a simple "give me a few minutes to finish up what I'm working on" could go a long way. If you do it regularly enough, it should be a constant reminder to him that you have work too and he may start asking you to look "when you are free".

I'm not usually a guy that asks for a code review to be done directly by pinging the reviewers, but I've found on certain projects there are colleagues who will unfortunately _never_ review any diffs I have with them listed even as the sole reviewers until I ask them.

This is unfortunate but means that I fall behind by however long I don't ask them to review my code for :( Others are great and I don't have to ping them directly and they can tell how urgent a review is or isn't usually.

Not commenting specifically on any situations discussed here but just realizing I do sit on the other side of the fence from time to time.

Good point. I certainly have a long backlog of changes waiting for review from others. I suspect that's more of a flaw in my current job's review process though.

I do think there's plenty of room to ping colleagues with a "hey, don't forget about that code review" before you become the "stop what you're doing and look at my code" guy.

I have the same issue. In general, coworkers are my main distraction, and it could be for many reasons:

- I also have a coworker that "Demands I Look At His Code Now". And, in general, he demands attention.

- Sometimes it is not time, but emotional. I don't know why but a lot of people come to me to discuss personal issues, or issues at work. I want to help or at least listen, but it is difficult to get anything done if each one of them steals 20 min or more. I feel horrible when I have to terminate the conversation abruptly because I have stuff to do.

- A few of my coworkers like just to be in my office when I am coding or fixing an issue. I think this would be extremely boring for me, but some people like to see how I solve problems. I feel flattered and enjoy the company, but it can get stressful when it is more than one person at a time. I guess it is a blessing and a curse.

We use slack. When we want someone's attention, we send them a private message. It sits there until they are ready to deal with it, or they respond, setting up a time to meet.

Good way to focus is to pair up.

If you sit with someone else you may still chit chat a bit but you are unlikely to check your email, twitter, HN etc as your conscience is likely to make you focus on the task you are both there for.

Like pomodoro technique it is important to still take breaks to check HN etc otherwise you go mad.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I use SelfControl [1] when I really need it. That way I literally can't access social media, HN, etc.

[1] https://selfcontrolapp.com/

I really like the use of tools that make focus the default, low-motivation option. If you're not on a Mac, Firefox has LeechBlock[1] and Chrome has StayFocusd[2]. Also, if you're on HN, there are built-in settings under your username you can use to limit how long you can access the site for every few hours.

Ironically, that's why I'm on HN now. I know I only have 15 minutes and then I won't get to use it for another few hours. :)

[1]https://addons.mozilla.org/En-US/firefox/addon/leechblock/

[2]https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stayfocusd/laankej...

PG's articles on this topic is very good, IMO.

The level of stimulation around us has gone way up. Our ability to deal with it culturally and psychologically has not gone up the same way. Whether the answer is to limit our exposure, envelop discipline or whatever, I think it's up to the individual at present to figure out a way.

The scary trap is: It's easy to consider procrastination/distraction a little problem. It is not.

Maybe we need to treat "distraction" like dieting or quitting smoking. That's disconcerting because we're horrendously bad at dieting and overcoming addiction.

People commonly use the word "procrastination" to describe what they do on the Internet. It seems to me too mild to describe what's happening as merely not-doing-work. We don't call it procrastination when someone gets drunk instead of working. - pg

http://www.paulgraham.com/distraction.html http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html

My main response to distraction is to remove myself somehow, while still being "available". If I can't leave the office, don't stop typing to talk to someone. They will get the picture quickly generally. It works better than closing the door (people come in anyway, often in the middle of phone calls) and distractions make their way through putting on a headset and a lecture or some music. (on a side note, I have noticed that I spent quite a bit of time listening to lectures about wide ranging subjects, and had significantly reduced my music listening. I have noticed more productivity with music than with lectures recently, and am moving back in that direction.)

Honestly though, for me as a sysadmin, I do no better work than in the dead of night with no one else in the office and I just simply don't even have to worry about external distractions. No one is calling and interrupting my flow, or requesting my presence, (the majority of my interruptions), and I can put on whatever entertainment I like and work away.

spend $30 (at best) and avoid all problems for ever. (true story)

Nokia 108. It has radio. It also as 1 week of batter life, by buying it, I have more $$ for a new laptop, and the apps I don't have access to have rewarded me by letting me walk places looking for things, sometimes not finding them and finding other better things instead.

Also my memory is getting better without my smart phone, but I'm a fairly visual thinker and I think that taking photo's to remember things was training me not to do it for myself.

each to their own, I work in finance and attention to detail is paramount, peers are less a distraction that a smart phone (which is becoming more of a toy day by day)

This link might be useful to a few. It's one hour of audio (and video) of birdsong. If you need some calming background audio to block out external noise, this might help:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05ttkx2

If you're not in the UK, someone has also uploaded it to YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNDtIwNLbao

It's part of a BBC season of 'go slow' TV programmes inspired by Norway's 'slow TV' concept.

I don't get it. They used a metric of looking at different screens as a lack of focus tool, and yet I've just had a nice 2 hour long session of developing a script, where I kept glancing between the script and the output on 2 monitors to see if I had fixed it. By their metric I was not focused, and yet I was just telling my colleague I had a great 2 hour long focused session

They probably meant 'window', i.e. what application had their focus. That's probably also not a very good metric though, given that developers will often flip between editors, terminals and browsers rapidly. It compares with 2004, although it doesn't specify in what area; I'm sure that single-application focus is also highly dependent on the area of work and the software used. Some people can do all their work in one application, others need half a dozen or more.

Also, iä! fhtagn!

They probably mean task-specific application window, not actual computer screen as many people even today just have a single monitor. Also I doubt they used software developers for test subjects.

The other option is what I'm running into in my current contract as a developer.

Work at a large healthcare company and they have everything locked down. And I mean EVERYTHING. No social media sites, no youtube, even 80% of the articles on HN are filtered out. Embedded videos? No way. Even a lot of images in the articles I read are filtered out as well.

On top of that? You have to agree to very strict email guidelines when you sign into your POP3 email accounts and oh yeah, the system automatically signs you out after 15 minutes. Not sure how many emails I've started and then look up and see the connection to my gmail account was terminated and I have to log back in to complete my email.

I won't even go into the lengthy process it took just to get Chrome installed on my laptop.

In a way, you have no option but to focus on work, they've effectively taken any and all distractions away from you, quite forcefully.

If you enjoy the ADHD Type 1 channel you should checkout DI.fm! Been listening to DI for years, great new content all the time. Plenty of old stuff as well.

How many of you made it through this article without getting interrupted? I only made it about 1/3 the way before I received 3 different text messages.

Couldn't you switch off your phone? Problem solved.

For a way to use tech to actually increase your focus: http://focusr.co

pkorzeniewski - your post is dead. I work from home 90% of the time and I find it really hard not to be distracted by technology (social media). I think that overcrowded offices and technology are two orthogonal problems here.

But the trend still seems to be for technology to add more noise. OS X comes with a super-chatty Notification Center that increasingly brings in noise from your phone, smart watches are distracting by default, and I can't imagine what kind of social notification bullshit the Internet of Things will enable. How can we fight this trend?

  [..] I find it really hard not to be distracted by
  technology (social media)
  [..] How can we fight this trend?

There is an obvious solution for at least part of the problem, isn't there?

> There is an obvious solution for at least part of the problem, isn't there?

Not without spending a lot of time configuring applications. Now I find Android more difficult to configure than Windows Advanced Server.

For example, in the past Twitter only notified you about tweets for you, then they started to play with the discovery stuff and send you all kind of tweets that may interested you. Sure, I can go to the configuration and disable this stuff but only after realizing their notification behavior changed. Thing about this multiplied by many applications.

/etc/hosts is your friend.

Apps that you don't install can't bother you with notifications. The solution to your problem is readily apparent.

Even iTunes(!) posts "now playing" notifications by default nowadays. It's not trying to be useful, it's just a "look technology" demo. If you don't want to mess around with launchd, you have to disable these pointless interruptions for each new Mac app that you install.

It's possible to silence all your devices, but even then it still affects the people around you. It's like insecure defaults - yes, you can RTFM and fix all the things in the house, but I wish I didn't have to.

I think the "obvious solution" hinted at was to get off social media.

For me, I started to hate Facebook. Too much time spent on it, too little value. But enough value to not delete my account. I ended up deleting the mobile app and was shocked at how positively that impacted my habits. Now I'm only on Facebook a couple times a week, and it provides slight value while not becoming a time sink.

I have 2 user accounts on my computer for that reason: my normal, fucking-around, games, social media, etc. account and my "get work done" account. FWIW, I am posting this from my fucking-around account.

> How can we fight this trend?

Do Not Disturb -> On. I'm not sure if that's a setting that propagates across all Apple devices automatically, but, the option is there.

I am using Focus@Will a lot.

Works for me.

Interesting. I tried it and didn't notice any improvement over any other music. How much do you think is caused by the actual music and how much do you think is because you have invested some money into improving your focus and so your brain now has a greater incentive?

Because with the other music it doesn't happen. Their price point is insignificant and is not doing a placebo effect. Some channels do nothing, and bother me. Uptempo High Intensity is what works best.

I just started using this and really like it. I spend a lot of time setting up music and playlists for coding since the office can get pretty loud without headphones. This has some good ambient music that plays pretty seamlessly without the listener having to think much about it.

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