If you find you cannot focus for more than a few minutes at the moment, do not be surprised. The modern world trains us to be in a constant state of distraction. (View Highlight)
I found that I struggled to work on one thing for more than 5-15 minutes at a time. By increasing the length of my work sessions, minute by minute, over several months that has become 45-60 minutes (View Highlight)
For extremely demanding work (such as reading academic papers) 30-minute blocks are necessary (View Highlight)
I learnt the technique of batching tasks based on their difficult from Chris Bailey's brilliant book, The Productivity Project (View Highlight)
Just as focus is a muscle, willpower is too. Exerting too much self-discipline trying to stay away from distractions is exhausting. My solution is simple: I block any site which could be used to waste my time between 10 am and midnight each day. Cold Turkey is my best friend. I keep the bare minimum apps on my phone (no games, social media, email etc) and avoid having it near me when I work. Plus, it is set up to show no notifications, never make noise and I have put all the apps in one folder, so I have to search for what I need. (View Highlight)
I learnt this technique from Ryan Holiday. Working in silence is miserable, and flipping between different genres and artists is distracting. The solution is to listen to a single playlist, album or even one song on repeat while working. Each day, (View Highlight)
Typing using WriteOrDie (a site which makes you keep up with a set number of words per minute or it deletes what you have already written. Brutal and somewhat effective.) (View Highlight)
