Icheb wrote:
Interestingly, listening to loud rock music helped me concentrate on my work; it somehow shut out all extraneous distractions.
As a rock music fan myself I wish that would work for me. Rock music was a way to keep my emotions under control because rather than lashing out I could listen to the music that let out all those emotion in a safe way. Whenever I listen to that music I end up in a state of meditation, where no work gets done thought I feel a whole lot better afterwards. If I'm stressed out and need to do work I can listen to rock music until I have my emotions under control. (This is one of the reasons why I disapprove of Hillary Clinton, who at one point claimed that violent music and videogames were making children more violent.)
When I do homework I put on one of the Classical radio stations on iTunes(little to no commercials, constant variation of songs). Without the singing and the recognizable head-bobbing beat I can focus on my work though I still find my emotions altered, rising and falling with the music. It is however, like adding a soundtrack to your work. A fight scene in Charlie's Angels without fast paced rock or techno wouldn't be nearly as adrenaline pumping. Homework is relatively static, but the classical music adds something that makes it much more dynamic and easy to focus on for longer periods of time.
I highly recommend it.
One of my biggest issues with procrastination and focusing is that I cannot focus on more than one thing. If I have two papers due on the same date, I have to do one and then the other. I can't do my work knowing I have to clean the dorm and do my laundry and 20 other things as well. I spend almost just as long scheduling out my work as I spend doing it, but putting it all on paper makes it okay to kick it out of my mind for long enough to do work.
Also giving myself one hour to do reading, or whatever my assignment is, I will sit somewhere without a clock but set an alarm or timer to go off after that hour is up. That way I am not constantly wondering what time it is, and I can focus on my work until the alarm goes off. When it is I'll take a short break or switch to a completely different subject to keep from getting too bored.
These are not "recommended Aspie techniques" and I'm sure they'd help anyone, even without AS. I've been developing these on my own by trial and error since fifth grade. In college now I've had to spend a lot more time scheduling and I've had a lot more distractions to deal with so I've made a lot more progress.