alt Hacker NewsIt's getting harder to focus every day
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dopamine fracking.
My 10 cents lately, pink noise. Blocks out a lot of distraction and helps focus.
As it happens I'm currently working on an app to help with this problem, effectively a soft habit tracker designed for daily reflection and mindful progression. It touches on some of the themes in this HN thread - helping create quiet space, time away from stimulation.
It's an early stage, fully functional but I'm looking for beta users. If you're interested in helping out or simply trying the app, please complete the form on https://coghance.com !
I listened to the dose effect [1] and that has really helped me get my attention back.
I’ve deleted TikTok and now get blocks of focused work done and I haven’t been this effective or happy in years.
I genuinely believe the next generation will be defined by people who can and who cannot focus their attention and get stuff done.
[1] https://open.spotify.com/show/2YCIVADHhUbpTtuCIvV7dG?si=lOiV...
I can focus at home. I have a terrible time focusing in the open office floor plan at work. I have to wear noise-canceling headphones just to cut down on some of the noise. Even then, people are constantly stopping by to chit-chat or make small talk. I hate it.
YouTube is really the thing that got me - the thing is it's not bad content, I don't watch slop, I watch quality stuff from interested, passionate individual creators and I could listen to them talk about their interests all day.
It doesn't wreck my day or make me feel anxious or anything, no doom scrolling involved, but it sure can turn into a huge time sink very fast.
This feels so familiar. Since more than a year or so Im witnessing more and more content being produced. One year ago or so it was enough to visit HN main page once a day and be up to day. These day, it needs a visit every few hours, the main page changes constantly. Not only that but also the amount of content received via newsletters.
Worst is with LLMs and coding agents, I give it a task to work on then go browsing the web, the LLM finishes in 2 minutes but I come back after 10…
At the end of the day, my mind feels super tired even though its the LLM that did the heavy lifting. I also barely remember what I was browsing 15 minutes ago. At this point I can honestly say - Im in trouble.
"It feels like my brain finds a way to do something else and avoid painful situations like boredom or hard work."
You just described ADHD.
I agree with this article, but I found the easiest ways to work on my focus are the following:
- Don't use social media. It's all garbage and counterproductive for your attention. Once you stop using it, you start to forget it exists.
- Always carry a Kindle, and when you're bored, read instead of reaching for other apps or games.
- Try to read 15 minutes before work, 30 minutes during lunch, and 15 minutes after work. That's an hour of reading a day — enough to get through a lot of books and papers.
- If you use an elliptical, read while on it. It takes practice, but it can be done.
You will see the biggest gains by saying bye to social media.
I'm in the same boat as OP.
I've learned to realize how many times it's boredom or stress triggering the distraction.
I see also other people struggle as much or worse than I do.
And yet people are still happily driving 10 LLM sessions concurrently.
The standards we set are off: I recently discovered 75 hard, and it's mind-boggling to me that the mental equivalent of "do two separate workouts, 45 minutes each" is "read 10 pages of a non-fiction book."
If it's a physics textbook, sure, that balance makes sense. If it's Atomic Habits (no offense to that book) then 10 pages is just not equivalent.
I got a secure computer room professionally installed.
Perhaps we should learn from the ADHDs on how to resist the dopamine hacks.
Oh wait, I am one and I can't resist it since day 1 on this world.
Check your diet. ADD/ADHD has been linked to histamine intolerance.
idk discipline? try retraining your brain on non-digital activities. Pick a long running non-digital activity and gitrdone.
Dude needs a vacation.
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It seems like I have challenges with both extremes, I can get pulled into my work and not look up again for 10 hours. But with virtually everything else, I have no energy to see it through. It is rare for me to watch a movie from start to finish. I used to be able to shut off my brain.