Having some sort of repetitive mindless activity to fall upon when you lose focus. That way, while you're unfocused you don't get drawn into doing something else and skip the work all together. I do the activity until I get bored of it (if it is reasonably mindless, this will happen after about 5 to 10 minutes), then get drawn back into what I'm supposed to be doing. It's all like creating pathways for the brain, and directing your thoughts through an intricate complicated maze while trying to keep them moving in the right direction.
I inevitably do lose focus, but by changing focus to a simple repetitive activity I can easily switch out of again minimizes the damage. Sometimes it can even help me to think.
Some of the activities that have worked for me:
* Scribbling on a notebook I keep by my computer.
* Playing a very simple, repetitive maze-like game (no adventure games or anything like that) maybe tetris or similar.
* Talking briefly on msn to someone then switching back (but that sometimes backfires as I can get too drawn in to coversations).
* listening to a single song (but again, that can backfire if I get caught up in listening to the music and keep playing more tracks).
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Into the dark...
20 Sep 2008, 9:29 pm
