I think of it like juggling. If you lose focus, all the balls drop.
this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2025
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My husband will walk into my office and just stand there until I respond. He’s trying not to break my chain of thought by not speaking. In his own way, he’s being very sweet. It’s well-intentioned but it breaks my chain of thought immediately anyway.
He thinks that I am bringing my task to a good stopping point before I respond to his presence, but I’m actually waging an internal war with myself: don’t rip his face off, I know I have been working a grand total of 15 minutes and he had every opportunity the rest of the freaking day to say whatever inane thing he is about to say that could have been a text, I should have shut the door if I didn’t want him wandering in, breathe breathe breathe … “yes, sweetie? What do you need?”
I hate how relatable this is.
If there's 1 thing worse than being interrupted for a stupid reason, it's being interrupted for no reason
eMpLOyeEs aRe moRe prODucTiVE iN thE OfFICe.
I actually am, by quiet a margin. But if course I'm taking about an actual office, and not a cubical ^^. I just like to separate work and free time. Unfortunately currently I don't have the possibility and barely get anything done :(
I totally get it. My critique is more about the bosses who want to decide for the employees how they work better.
Understandable. Working culture has changed drastically in the last couple decades, due to the drastic rise of jobs which require actual thinking instead of being a working bee. I guess lots of people couldn't keep up.
quite*
Typing faster than reading it ;) ty
No worries, bb i gotchu ♡
I'm more productive in the office, but that's just me.
The best experience I had was when I was an independent contractor / student as production coordinator at my college radio station (max $100/week at $10/hr). I was helping produce elements for the school's overall internet radio channel, but also helping other students who wanted assistance with assets for their shows.
One young woman was trying to record herself to voice her show's promo, but her energy just wasn't there. I had an idea: open the mic and record, I'll go into main studio, which had a lot of sound proofing, and then get her to repeat her promo until I could hear her. After a few takes it sounded like we might have a win.
I went back and trimmed the audio to just the few takes she had done, and the last one was phenomenal. It was so perfect in every way, so we used it for her show. That's the shit I like doing, and why I prefer working at the office.
Keep a notebook
It won't help but at least you'll have fun doodles
helps for complexity in large tasks. Not really with small tasks (since you spend more time making and reading notes than doing the work). Programming is an example where notes can't save me, I just need to hyperfocus or I won't get anything done.
I also program. Most of my lost time is due to repeated mental calculations of the cost of each approach in execution vs maintainability.
If left unchecked, I will do nothing and keep thinking. I've found that writing it down and trying any option without giving much weight to my intuition, helps a lot. Sure, I may need to rewrite some parts again, but it's faster for me to do that instead of optimising the first attempt. Plus by the second time, I'll have a better idea of the thing. I try to apply this not only to feature development but also debugging. I work close to hardware too so debugging is quite complex.
Exactly why I love remiote work that much. Sitting at home in a room that is exactly the temperture and light level that I like, wearing noise cancelling headphones w/o music is pure bliss.
I mean, not that I am getting any work done either but in theory this is much more efficient :D
You're wasting time, faster!
Amateur, I can't even focus in the first place at all 😎
yeah for me it poofs constantly without anyone interrupting
Since I was a kid, "I'm so broke, I can't even pay attention!"
came here just to talk about backtracking i feel a lot of anxiety and i literally cannot calm my mind, it starts racing if i feel like im forgetting something. it's kinda related to ocd-ish behaviour, compulsive back tracking, i start looking at my browser history or scrounge for stuff which can make me remember what did i forget. I hate it.
Also, one more issue being that i always look for the next thing to do, i literally cannot stop thinking about what do i have to do next or what am i excited for, its like i can never live in the present moment, it sucks so hard. fml
I got a therapist for this same type of thing - it really does suck. I felt like I was going to crawl out of my skin all the time. The right therapist can be so helpful. My mind still races, but I automatically use the SOBER technique now without thinking through the acronym first. Or I name the issue “this is avoidant - what am I avoiding?” Or I ask “how can I reframe this?” To stay in the moment, I use a sensory exercise. Seek a therapist who will TEACH, not just sympathize.
I will. Thanks, I really should.
Trello 100% fixed that for me. Also, as someone who NEEDS my little dopamine reward whenever I do a task I found a little trick. If you put the 🎉 (party horn emoji) in the title of a list it blows a bunch of confetti over the screen whenever you drag a task into that list 😁
Ah, Trello.
I can use that to hyper-focus on my tasks. But before I do that, I have to list, prioritize, and organize my tasks. But before that, I should create a layout for my tasks. What statuses should I have. Should I use deadlines?
What was I doing again?
The problem with every organization app.
"It worked for me! Now all my projects are organized and it's so much easier than when I was keeping everything in my head... After I was able to sit down and focus for a day to import all my data and organize it and set up the program to tailor to my application and now that I go back to it to reorganize my new info every week..."
I just use 6 lists and I grab and move cards along them from left to right. My lists are very simple:
Would be nice to do Need to do Doing today 🎉 Done today Completed in the last 4 weeks To be archived
I only use 2 automation rules. One rule to move new cards to the top of the list I created them in and a second rule to automatically move cards along the last 3 lists depending on how long they've been there.
It's been life changing for me. I don't get side-tracked anymore cos I can just dump whatever it is into one of the lists on my pc or my phone. It's also really helpful that I can put a "Due by:" date that gradually changes from yellow to red as the deadline approaches.
I've been looking for a better way to track my at home tasks and projects, would you recommend it as highly outside the workplace? I figure a task is a task so it'd probably be fine but wanted to ask.
Edit: typo
Absolutely, I have a board for work and one for home. I use the work one a lot more though. I'm also very visual so to be able to add a picture of someone's face or the bit of the house I need to work on really makes it stand out.
...recursive eisenhower method works well for me: it's effective + simple-enough not to be bogged-down by overplanning...
Exactly why it didn't work for me...
Try as hard as you can to keep calm about it. Sometimes it annoys the hell out of me. Not that I was interrupted but it unnecessary. That always annoys at least a bit.
ahhhhhhhhh