It's getting harder to focus every day
7 hours ago
- The author struggles to maintain focus and gets easily distracted, even when doing things they want to do.
- They used to be able to concentrate for long periods while studying, working, and contributing to open source, but now cannot get even one hour of focused time.
- Distractions include browsing the web, checking the phone, making the bed, and avoiding boredom or hard work.
- They recall a high school decision to keep phone chargers away from the bed, which helped maintain intentional activities, but later discovered browsing sites like HackerNoon and Medium, which became distractions.
- The work environment, with excessive meetings and chat, habituated them to distractions, including spending 8 hours a week on Slack.
- Using LLMs for tasks leads to multitasking and overstimulation, making focus harder as they wait for answers instead of working through problems.
- They are adopting new habits like reading books and gardening to replace addictive distractions, and use techniques like livestreaming to force focus.
- Setting a timer helped them start writing this reflection and provided initial motivation.