As a software engineer I have to read long documentations and blog posts almost daily. I have tried to have a dedicated time slot in my day for that. But not always I can maintain the concentration required and my attention span decreases to that of an infant.
Every now and then while reading I jump on to checkout GitHub & Twitter, or start wire framing an app idea I had while having a bath 2 days back, or even writing this very blog post.
In result it kills a significant amount of time and gives an unsatisfactory feeling at the end of the day. I tried a lot of things to fix this and over the time found a few which works for me, thus sharing here.
- Keep only 1 display open out of 3. (can focus better on 1 area)
- Remove all unwanted browser tabs. (less clutter)
- Place the mobile phone away. (less distractions)
- Close all applications like Slack, Teams, BaseCamp, and Discord. (replying to messages can wait)
- Switch from Magic Trackpad to Logitech Mouse. (making window change difficult as hot corners aren’t set up & I am habitual of the trackpad)
- Use pomodoro technique. (Flow app recommended)
Share in comments what works for you…
I’ve found using something like [1] to work well with managing tab chaos and also try to keep the phone on silent if not expecting anything.
[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tabwrangler/
Seems nice, I would definitely try it.