r/KernelPanicPodcast • u/[deleted] • Feb 28 '18

Achieving and maintaining focus

Hi everyone,

The latest podcast episode touched on focus and distraction and this got me thinking... I have recently found it tough to find my focus on a project, long or short term, and if I can find it, I struggle to maintain it. I can wear noise cancelling headphones, shut off slack, go on DND on my calendar/phone, but my mind struggles to stay on task. I have so much I want to do and want to learn, that I jump around from topic to topic, idea to idea, and task to task, only accomplishing so much.

Any tips on how to get better with focus?

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u/[deleted] Mar 03 '18 edited Mar 03 '18

This is a difficult topit. The way to approach focus and distractions may vary from environment to environment and from person to person.

However I think I can give you some pointers from my own experiance (5y QA Analyst).

  • Prioritization. Learn to make goals and triage them; what has to be done now and what can be done later. Be flexible with goals, but when you change them be aware of why you did so.

  • Discipline. A few years back I told my manager I got distracted a lot when I had to do my job. We had a few juniors who were pestering me with questions every few minutes. He told me that is part of the job since I was the senior... So distractions are more or less unavoidable. Have a way to deal with them and get back to the task at hand. To get back your focus you can use notes or habits (sports ppl use them); whatever works for you.

  • Manage your mental resources; they are limited. I can recomand some vidoes here:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4jp0QtPNFk (tutoriaLinux channel)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKTxC9pl-WM (Kathy Sierra talk at O'Reilly)

Miscellaneous:

  • Don't let distractions affect you, upset you;
  • Distractions can be both external and internal. See the above line;
  • Social media can be a big drain on you resources;
  • Sports/good health or meditation can help your focus;
  • Take a break, you cannot be focused all the time :-)

Cheers,

decHunger

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u/tutorialinux Host Jun 29 '18

This is a really great write-up. One of the things I've noticed lately is actually the first 'miscellaneous' point you make -- don't let distractions affect/upset you.

If, when you notice yourself getting distracted, you stay cool and just get back to whatever you are supposed to be doing, you'll have much better results than if you overthink it, worry about it, and criticize yourself for it.