Staying focused

[Mercurybro]

We all could do with being able to focus in on one thing without getting distracted. Unfortunately, mundane tasks seem to have a goal of wearing down your enthusiasm, bit by bit.

The good news is that there are some common actions that many people do to stay focused, even when they are doing things they don't want to do. What are some things you like to do? 😅

 

[Roni]

a lot of things, which is why i ticked quite a bit of boxes in the poll. but the main thing that works for me is indeed turning big problems into such bite sized parts then tackle them one by one, slowly but surely so as to prevent any sense of overwhelm from occurring. doing it as we speak in one of the projects i've been assigned to do, and i believe it's working so far.

 

[Sheep]

It's honestly hard for me to stay focused on things nowadays, my attention span has gotten worse. :( And honestly I'm not sure if anything helps. If it does it must not help often enough for me to remember it. Timers probably do most of all, especially with staying focused on exercise!

 

[Figure]

A big thing for me since I have ADHD is I need to multi-task. I think it is why I enjoy cooking professionally so much because there is so much you need to keep track of and you are doing so many thing at once. Another thing that helps me a lot is music, I like playing chess a lot and I play online and I need to play music in the background otherwise, I can't focus on the game at all.

 

[Starlight]

Music helps me focus too, or sometimes pink noise if the music itself ends up being a distraction!

I find my brain works better, and I get more done, when it's not left to run riot and create a maddening soundtrack of its own.

It only seems to work with music, or noise, I like. If someone has on a TV or similar, I struggle to focus due to unexpected noises etc.

 

[Corrin]

I have autism so my concentration is extreme, so much that everything else vanishes.
It's a bit annoying.

 

[Starlight]

I have autism so my concentration is extreme, so much that everything else vanishes.
It's a bit annoying.

Autism dealt me the same hand! For things I'm interested in, I am so single minded that it hurts.

For boring stuff, I usually end up thinking of the thing I actually want to be focusing on. Music or pink noise helps, for different reasons, in both cases :)

 

[Aslan]

I had a lot of trouble focusing on work during HS and even moreso when I got to college. I find breaking down large tasks into small subgoals super helpful for me. I would get frustrated and distracted if I felt like I could not complete a task in a single seating and this helped a lot with eliminating that feeling. For school I've always had a table on Word with each class organised by week and specific goals on what I have to do and I'll tick off tasks in green/what date they were done to keep track of how I'm going with work.

I also find instrumental/ambient music really helpful to focus with or even those study with me videos can be very helpful especially during super demotivating periods like finals season. Sometimes I'll also force myself to give myself 5 mins to do a task with no distractions and then if I am really not up for it I can stop but I usually find this helps me to stop getting distracted and just focus on getting the task done.

I've also found I am definitely not a multitasker - I can if needed but I find that I focus a lot better just sticking to getting one task done at a time, regardless of how mundane or hard it is.

 

[Taemin]

For me, I would say that keeping lists (when I remember) or at least breaking down tasks helps the most.'

Also, caffeine is proven to slow ADHD and help you focus, so I drink caffeine and break things down.

I also can hyperfocus on games I enjoy and such, so I kinda just turn that around and try to hyperfocus on work instead and that has worked pretty well in recent years!

 

[User19sq]

I can't seem to focus on a single sentence long enough to finish reading it. I guess my only method of combatting this is to just start over until I can read it all the way through and retain it.

My mind may or may not have regressed to that of a second-grader's...

 

[Sydian]

honestly i probably need medication to stay focused lmfao i think i went under the radar for an adhd diagnosis when i was young

 

[colours]

i think "breaking up a huge task into smaller tasks" is generally my preferred method of staying focus on any one particular task that i have to do. especially since how my mind works is that it tends to make any one task very daunting, taking smaller steps just makes things a lot less overwhelming for me.

 

[Megan]

Splitting things up and building a list works well in combination. Knowing which tasks I need to complete I can categorize some of the steps and group them together. To avoid making things boring I can just put something in between similar tasks, be that to change things up or to simply put in a break when need be.

I don't try too hard to stick to things completely, though. There's always some flexibility to keep things from being too "over optimized".

 

[Hisuitake]

Making lists helps me stay focused on tasks sometimes on paper or in my head. Also just getting good sleep and eating healthy helps motivate me being more productive better.

 

[gimmepie]

Autism dealt me the same hand! For things I'm interested in, I am so single minded that it hurts.

For boring stuff, I usually end up thinking of the thing I actually want to be focusing on. Music or pink noise helps, for different reasons, in both cases :)

This. So much this.

I've learned that breaking menial boring stuff up into chunks and/or playing some good music at the same time helps though.

 

[Zeostar]

I have strong focus, but I also get bored quickly which is a weakness. And as soon as "boredom" hits I'll mentally check out.

 

[pastelspectre]

Depending on what i am doing, i try to be very focused. getting rid of all distractions helps, and so does making a list of what i have to do for the day

 

[Taro Tanaka]

A while ago, I began to play Friday Night Funkin' off a recommendation from a friend. I really sucked at it. Eventually, I Googled ways of improving one's focus, and a list mentioned that playing video games worked. So I decided to try playing the game some more, and I think I'm improving on staying focused. At least enough to keep up on Hard mode.

 

[Zaddd]

I sure wished that I had coffee, but in that situation, I usually have to twitch and flex my muscles with a lot of serious atmosphere, focusing strictly on my goals to give me that motivation.

 

[Palamon]

I am usually doing a lot of things at once, but what helps me stay focused is acting like it's something I have to do, lmfao.