I have focus issues, here are my tricks to survive
I listen to all conversations in the street or at the office
In the street, I often play a game to follow up discussions of random people with friends. Sometime, I play alone but when a friend responds: it’s fun :)
My solution: I started to learn about meditation, this helps me to let go off sounds and ideas. Also, it’s not always a problem to listen to everything.
My solution at the office: I try to use noise cancelling earplug with music but I can still hear people. I try to find a quiet space.
The ironic thing: I naturally speak louder than everyone else.
When I start reading an article: I end up reading the whole web
My solution: I use Pocket to store articles and read them later (usually: never).
I also read my whole twitter feed.
Ok, it’s a little exaggerated: It’s limited to 4-5 days max, after that I can’t scroll anymore in Tweetdeck :(
It’s one of the reason that I am not on Facebook (but mainly for privacy concerns).
My solution: I unfollow and block people to reduce the size of my twitter feed.
I check my phone on every vibration
I also check my phone when other people’s phone vibrate near me. Fortunately, I’m not on Facebook :)
My solution: I have removed all notifications except SMS, call and WhatsApp. I also remove or disable apps I don’t use.
I try to do lot of things in same time
If I go to my kitchen to get a fork, I will return with a plate, water, foods, oil, pepper, salt (I could have been waiter, I have learnt how to bring lot of things at the same time) but I have forgotten to take the fork.
So I try to convince myself: next time take the fork first and after check for other things.
Sometimes it’s good to multitask, like when I cook, I also wash the dishes (ok, sometimes I end up with some burned food but it’s rare now).
I can do the same when I develop. I have a new feature to develop, I found bugs or things to refactor on the way: I end up doing 5–6 tasks at same time and get lost of what I was doing first.
My solution: I have developed an app to help me do only one task at the time: http://boxtime.dauphant.com/.
For the moment, the app is very useful when I am in a rush but useless other times.
My other solution: I use a working document when I develop (this solution isn’t limited to development).
- This document contain a to do list that I complete progressively (stacking small things to do in a queue help me to not forget and not start things immediately)
- I add all pieces of informations I will needs during my task (links, stack traces, code, keys, ideas, questions, anticipated problems, …).
- The document doesn’t need to be perfect in the end. I archive it at the end of the task and rarely look at it after that.
- This document is very useful when resuming after an interruption (that happens often, otherwise I would have not written this article) even after a long time.
You can see an example of one of my working documents here: https://hackpad.com/Smart-Mirror-qs9to8Z40PD (not the best but you should get the idea)
Conclusion
So, I am easily distracted, it’s in my nature. I have accepted that. I deal with it in part with the techniques I described here.
It’s only a part of focus problems I have and part of solutions: if you have questions or some tricks to tell me don’t hesitate to contact me: on twitter Julien DAUPHANT or by mail firstname@lastname.com .
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