Does anyone have tips for re-gaining focused attention? Willing to try anything at this point.
1) Set a timer for the period you want to focus on it for. In the beginning, I'd pick short times, like 2 minutes, or 5 minutes.
2) Try to remain focused on whatever you picked. You will inevitably fail.
3) Do not get angry at yourself! Your mind is like a puppy. It will want to wander, and you're simply going to notice it has wandered, and then pull your attention back. Be gentle with yourself, because just like a puppy, your mind will internalize abuse and snap back at you in the future in unexpected ways.
4) Repeat 3) until the timer rings.
5) Hurray! Repeat this exercise as many times as you want, for the rest of your life. Experiment with how long you like setting the timer.
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This is "mindfulness" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness), in my own words.
The trick is to ask yourself - have you spent, like five minutes, honest-to-God, to the clock, thinking about it? If the issue really matters to you, it's pretty much the least you can do - pull out the timer, set it to 5 minutes, and start thinking, not stopping until the timer hits zero. I was surprised just how much one could figure out in 5 minutes of focused thinking / self-brainstorming. I try to apply this method more and more often, especially when I get stuck on some choice, or don't know how to proceed from the point I'm in. But also sometimes for totally random ideas - 5 minutes is enough to think about how to start tackling them, and whether it's worth your time.
#3 is something I've been working on for handling "failure" in general. I think that acknowledging a lack of success as a system whose outputs only include much more than fail/succeed is how something can lead towards, well, failure.
Similarly, mindfulness was introduced into popular medical use for stress reduction, trauma, depression, pain relief, etc. by Jon Kabat-Zinn[2], who also has published articles.
I am sure the mindfulness article on Wikipedia also has useful links, and you could use sci-hub/google scholar/etc. to look up more research articles with the keyword "mindfulness".
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_behavior_therapy#M... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marsha_M._Linehan [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Kabat-Zinn
http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html
(scroll down for the chapter links.)
Nothing is foolproof. Good luck.
1) Get yourself on a sleep schedule. Figure out if you need 7.5 hours, 8 hours, or 9 hours of sleep. Then, pick a time to go to sleep and a time to wake up and stick to it for both weekends and weekdays. You will have exceptions, but it should be the baseline to which you return. If you find you are consistently tired, see a doctor and check if you have thyroid problems or sleep apnea.
2) Excercise vigorously at least a little bit every day. This will help you get sleep.
3) Eat good food. Avoid too much simple sugars. If you don't already cook then either buy a slow cooker and the iOS/Android app Paprika. Or go to /r/mealprepsunday. Alternately, try Soylent as your baseline.
Also, try using the OSX app SelfControl or the windows app ColdTurkey to block websites like these.
I have found a lot of use in timers. It's gimmicky, but putting a timer on my phone, and telling myself I will do only one thing until it goes off really works for me.
(I often impulsively buy books recommended by HNers, though I haven't regretted it even once.)
It's really useful in fighting against all these distractions (I should probably re-read it every few months though :(
Recently came across http://timewellspent.io, which you might want to check out. Right now their advice focuses on smartphone use, but I think it's pretty good. There is a longer essay about it here: https://medium.com/swlh/distracted-in-2016-reboot-your-phone... The single best piece of advice in there is to turn off notifications from apps that aren't essential to your life. I only have notifications from messaging apps where I talk to my friends and haven't missed anything.
My two cents: set goals, work to accomplish them. "Focused attention" doesn't live in a vacuum, it only exists if there is something on which to be focused. Find that thing, pursue it. Keep track of what's distracting you, do your best to remove those distractions.
More pragmatically: get rid of social media if you haven't already. You don't have to go dead, just stop logging in every day. My own path was: delete the apps off my phone, stop logging in as often, stop caring about logging in as often, stop caring about the service as much.
OK you got me here's a bunch of advice :)
While this may be easier said than done, in my experience this is the only way I can focus for extended periods (i.e., a week) of time. Had to lock myself in a room to finish my dissertation.
Now you're looking at your phone when you need to, not pulling it out to check something else and "oh, look a hit of dopamine! I mean, someone replied on Twitter!" and falling down the hole.
For example, I don't have Gmail alert the watch (nothing work-related, and rarely needs my immediate attention), rarely use Twitter and don't have a FB account, so those don't get on the watch. I do have the following go to the watch: Dark Sky (rain alerts) Calendar Fidelity ("LC hit it's stop limit, so we sold it for you."; I could do w/o this one.) Home cameras (e. g., Nest) Text messages Phone calls Airline apps and Apple Wallet Reminders A bunch of crap I don't care about (e. g., app for Nissan Leaf) that have never, ever notified me, so I leave it on because lazy.
Of those on the "allowed" list, Calendar, msgs, reminders, and the rare phone call alert me the most, which is what I'm looking for: stuff I need to know now.
This will allow you to cease being inundated, so when you implement some of the mindfulness techniques described by others, you'll likely be in a better state of mind if only because the noise has abated a bit. IOW, it's easier to be mindful of reaching for your phone when you're not doing it in a Pavlovian manner.
Use Focus App to block distracting sites during non-work times. That's when the danger is greatest.
Those two have helped me the most.
If you must read something online, save it using Pocket or a similar service, then read it offline.
When you walk somewhere (to the fridge, to work), just stop for a second, then keep walking.
When you want to call somebody, wait for a second, then make the call.
And so on…