Just got an email from John Sonmez’s mailing list just as I was planning out my day. I thought that this picture was great, and it is how I feel as a developer sometimes, so I wanted to share it.
Since I’ve been talking about being a remote worker, I wanted to talk a little bit about focus today. There will be many more discussions on Focus after this, don’t worry!
I am a big fan of the most popular course on coursera: Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects. Such a fan, that I have burnt it to a CD that I keep in my car to review on long drives. In the course, two types of learning of discussed: Focused and Diffused.
Both of these styles are important, but there are a few quick ways to get your mind into the focused mode that I wanted to share.
- The Pomodoro Technique
- Break up your focus sessions into short intervals (25 minutes is suggested) and use a timer to keep track of it
- I have been using either my phone’s timer or TomatoTimer
- Turn off your phone alerts!
- My family and friends may not like it, but during my work day, my phone is in silent mode without vibrate
- To help with forcing myself to not use my phone, I sometimes use the Forest App
- Headphones, music, something not distracting
- I use Brain.fm frequently for focusing, they allow 30 minute modes, which is close to my Pomodoro time
- I have found many great focus playlists on Spotify. Such as:
- Deep Focus by Spotify
- Focus at Work by Matteo Cassese
- Study Alpha Waves by Study Alpha Waves
- I also enjoy some of the great Chiptune music on Spotify for focused work, such as 8-bit Universe which does great cover songs
- YouTube is also full of some great study music, such as this
Stay tuned to JIMMYROCKS.IO for more discussion on staying focused!