Hacker Bits, Issue 11

Distraction seems to be a well-established problem but nobody wants to take it seriously or knows how
to fix it.
How do I generally reduce distractions, anxiety and noise?
We’ve made two theses so far:
1. The type of work that is valuable in the modern economy involves long periods of serious work
and focus.
2. We are easily distracted and find prolonged period of focus difficult.
Identifying these as problems is important and valuable in itself, but real progress will come from being
able to properly put deep work into practice.
Trying to break the “distraction habit” is hard and this is by no means a comprehensive or exhaustive
list, but this is what I’ve been doing and what has worked for me.
Be less distracted in general:
• Delete social media apps from my phone (that aim to be addictive). I can still access from the mobile
browser if I want, but its inconvenience puts me off.
• Ban my phone from the toilet. Yup. This is actually a big one.
• Stop keeping my phone near my bed. Check your email before you get out of bed? If you can’t
reach it, you can’t.
• Stop carrying my phone in my pocket. Keeping it in my bag instead makes it less convenient and
me less prone to picking it up.
Be less distracted at work:
• Recognise when I’m doing deep work and need to focus (this is useful for stopping yourself when
you’re tempted to change tab).
• Install Timewarp for Chrome. This doesn’t aggressively block websites (although you can if you
wish), but puts up a timer for selected sites, showing you how much time you’ve spent on a site
that day. Much more useful than sweary alternatives*.
• Put my phone on do not disturb and keep it off my desk.
• Use full screen mode in app and browser.
• Remove the bookmarks bar from Chrome.
• Close my email app and only open at set times.
• Listen to more classical music.
I’ve long been a fan of the Pomodoro Technique and relied on it almost exclusively for the last two
years of my degree, but I’ve not found it such a useful ally in the quest for deep work. It’s a prop for
concentration rather than an outright fix – and I want to be able to fix my focus problem rather than
cover it up. The Pomodoro timer (my favourite is Pomotodo) mawy come out again in the future, but
for now I’m leaving it.
*I’ve received lots of recommendations for Chrome extensions after publishing this. A couple of
12 hacker bits