Ask HN: What is your trick to do deep work or study?
The topic is very important to me, and I believe it should be important for any learner. I read Deep Work and loved it, but I think it is just one step in the right direction. We need to think more about it. How to lose yourself with the book or in your work. That skill that became very rare. I am assuming that there is knowledge out there somewhere that could help. So do you have any tricks for that other than the usual (like quitting social media)?
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 157 ms ] threadThat means you're probably not going to experience any flow when you're just starting on something.
Anecdotally, I find it a very transferrable skill, which, once acquired from one subject or activity, would boost your capability to apply in another.
I suppose that's why meditation and yoga have been all over the place these days, as it goes along the same line of logic. On that note, perhaps just mediate and do yoga.
1. Getting into flow state on a conscious level implies that you are already there on a subconscious one.
2. Practically speaking to get into flow you need two components: Passion (you have to be driven by whatever it is you’re going to; “because I have to” won’t cut it. It won’t click.) and discipline (basically keeping temptations under control.)
Flow implies a certain degree of momentum/autopilot, or at least a state where one thing flows into another. It's kinda like hitting a set of green traffic lights and you get to cruise right through. Unfortunately, when the underlying problem is really disjointed, adjusting environmental factors don't really help.
I guess one way to solve the problem is to break it down into little pieces, brute force through them, and see if they lead anywhere. Once you get past the activation energy, then flow starts to happen.
Cardio helps me get into flow state. At 15-20 mins my body goes on autopilot and my mind begins to go in and out of flow.
Meditation. I’m still new at this but it helps clear my head and allows me to silence my brain.
Practicing these two disciplines has made huge improvements to my cognitive function.
I've been doing a lot of travel to Europe lately, and the return flight has become my greatest deep work experience ever. I enjoy it so much that I actually look forward to it now and wish I could do it more than ~4 times a year.
I fly either Zurich or Frankfurt to SFO on United and get an economy bulkhead seat (nobody in front to recline). Wifi is solid. In-seat power. It's a ~12 hour day flight (leave around 1pm CET, land 4pm PT). It's dark since many people sleep so they turn the lights off and close the shades. There's enough ambient noise to be calming without annoying. There are zero distractions otherwise. The are regular coffee refills on-demand.
Every time I've done this flight (I've done it 6 times now) I get into a solid and excellent flow state. I've accomplished more on various coding projects in that one flight than sometimes in a week or two of regular at-home time.
Obviously as I said it's not practical to fly around the world to get work done :) But I try to use that as a roadmap for setting up an environment at home to emulate it as much as possible.
A friend of mine finished her novel through repeated long-haul flights from JFK. The on-going expense alone is motivating.
I think the question already starts off in the wrong direction. There are no tricks which solve the problems completely. It would be like asking for a trick to gain muscles or a trick to learn Spanish. The trick for both is: do the work. I'd argue that it is the same for focus. For example, Einstein was able to work through the sound of his crying baby [1]. Ignoring the questionable fatherhood practices, it shows that Einstein did not need a trick to get into the flow.
Doing the work implies that you optimize for doing the work. For one, that means reducing the number of possible distractions. Two great examples are Donald Knuth and Linus Torvalds. Knuth, doesn't read his emails or letters for extended periods of time and Linus' workplace is a desk staring straight to a white wall. Both people have clearly optimized for avoiding distractions and they seem to have come quite far with their lifes. If you want to hear a similar message about cutting distractions from an ex-Navy SEAL, then see Jocko [2].
Note that my examples do assume an, lets say, average Hacker News individual. Of course, if you have ADD or live under the poverty line then hearing that you "should just focus" is as unhelpful as telling a depressed person to be happy.
[1]: Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson [2]: https://youtu.be/WAiZqtxbvYQ
I just googled and a bunch of people think he may have had ADHD, but I'd guess thats true of basically any combination of famous person and mental health issue.
OMG, as someone who is very irritable and has trouble focusing through any kind of noise, this sounds like a superpower. I'm guessing it's largely genetic.
I recently replicated the noise I remember from my last flight (quite a while ago) on mynoise and dubbed it "Airplane vibes":
https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/whiteRainNoiseGenerator.ph...
It manages to drown out people talking outside your headphones while comfortably allowing you to listen to something playing on the inside.
- getting somewhere with no wifi (train, plane, in the nature, coffee, hotel lobby, or even disabling the wifi on your laptop)
- pomodoro
- chains
- seeking no interruptions
There's nothing inherently wrong with drug use. The problems come in with abuse, addiction, dependency, and negative side effects - and all of those are so mild with caffeine as to be effectively nonexistent for most people, as long as they refrain from ingesting it into the late afternoon and evening.
1. I personally give a shit about the subject matter at hand.
2. I feel confident that i have a potentially small but secure foothold on the problem domain.
3. Strong external validation that I am free to dive into this, take as long as it takes, without anyone breathing down my neck about it or tapping their foot waiting for me to hurry up. Shame's a bad driver.
Don't know if that counts as deep work, but it is a technique I've used repeatedly over the years and had good success with.
I mentally prepare 30-60 minutes beforehand.
A cup of coffee is nice and warm while I read HN, check socials, etc. It perks me up, puts me on a track.
Work is distant here. It's going to happen, but it's not important now.
I finish my coffee at the pace I finish reading, clean up, and then setup my work space.
This is vital to me. The more work I put into ergonomics early on, the less I have to readjust later.
I have a set of rules to follow for efficiency.
1. I need minimal distractions. Headphones and instrumental music work great for me personally. Visually I can focus on a rectangular screen and that becomes a visual boundary for me. Among other people I set rigid boundaries.
2. I need minimal movement to accomplish a task. My peripherals are in arm's reach. If I need to break from work it takes maybe two motions maximum to set aside anything I'm using. Coming back to work, just reverse the motions.
I then focus on reassessing the problem(s) I left the previous day.
I find the smallest problem I can fix and gradually descend into larger structural issues I would like to solve or build. With my design these are usually emergent as I take the small problems, but the benefits are double-fold because I like to ease in and gain confidence as I work. It's like starting a marathon at a steady pace versus a sprint I guess.
Rinse and repeat. Take breaks. If you are having issues with some deep work, pull yourself up and give yourself a mental snack like (for gamedev) a simple shader that you can just play around with.
Nothing wrong with checking socials or your phone, but I physically go somewhere else. To me, it's an invitation into my workspace and because this space is sacred for me, I can determine what signals come and go.
My 2c.
I go somewhere without other people, silence notifications, and start working while listening to light music or a familiar audiobook/podcast/etc.
There's nothing magic about listening to things, but over the years I've avoided doing things other than creative or deep work while sitting alone in a room half-listening to something, and now when I do that my mind sort of takes the hint.
Back in college, I saw a lot of people do this sort of thing to study. You'd see the same people at the same library tables week after week, friends didn't let friends study in bed because beds were mostly for sleeping, and there were always a few people who staggered unsteadily into exams to try the whole "state-dependent memory" thing. It wasn't particularly evidence-based, but after a few years of wildly oscillating between thinking about different topics, you notice that your brain likes to associate modes of thought with sensory input. I doubt my experience is unique there.
My brain is only ever comfortable in Deep Work mode.
Being able to dedicate whole days is a luxury. But in reality most days I get a lot done I will eventually run out of steam with great feelings from accomplishment.
Then I am often motivated to do the simpler tasks I normally avoid.
Side effects : Spiked diabetes for almost 3months.
So had to throw away the entire pack of tabs.
Similar state I have gotten while drinking 4shots of whisky(enough that nobody can figure out you are drunk) and start working at night. Problem is with drinks I start to get headaches after an hour of working, so I go back to sleep.
Both has its drawback. Modafanil lasted longer and gave up on both. It's not effective in regular basis.
1. Obvious, but not obvious: Quit social media. It's an subconcious addiction factor. Stop checking instagram, stop checking tiktok, stop checking your phone. If you can't (which is normal at first), remove yourself the internet capabilities to do so.
2. In my case I quit my ISP bill. Quite literally. Now I'm on tethering and 2G slow most of the time, which sucks but is great, too. It only allows browsing the web for text based research, and only when I do not download images or any other distractions.
3. Put your phone in DND mode and uninstall all social media apps. Keep communication apps but disable notifications for all apps. Add your loved one as a "starred" contact so she/he can contact you in case of emergency by call or short message.
4. Remove outside distraction factors from your environment. TV running constantly? Sell it, you don't need it anyways. Too bright working spot? Change your flat layout. Too noisy next to the flat's door? Move your office desk somewhere else and isolate it by using matrasses or hanging up cushy blankets to reduce noise.
5. Get a working routine. Make it possible to be able to work offline, no matter the cost. Issues on github? Use my offline scrumboard extension [1] to sync issues while online, and read them later offline.
6. Don't listen to vocal music, because it distracts you. In my case I use ambient original glitchy type of music (none of that dubstep shit), because it lets me keep my focus for hours. Funkstoerung, Glitch Mob, Telefon Tel Aviv, Brothomstates ... to name a few.
7. Do all your meta stuff when you take a break, don't do it in between, it's pointless and inefficient. By meta stuff I mean cleaning the flat, buying food, or the need to go outside to get something done.
8. Don't set yourself tasks during the day that have a synchronous dependency on outside factors. Don't have phone calls, don't talk socially, it's just a distraction factor that helps your subconcious to have an excuse for being lazy.
9. The phone notification rule applies for your working laptop/computer, too. If your OS pops up notifications all the time (read as in: M$), don't use it. In my case I love gnome shell not for the UI, but for the UX. Zero notifications or popups that get in my way when I accidentially left my email client or telegram open.
10. Don't mix gaming and coding. If you do, you'll end up in a lazy state when you decided to work. It's an addiction and therefore can reward your brain with the wrong perceptive measurements. You should reward yourself only after a deep focus state, not before it.
[1] https://github.com/cookiengineer/github-scrumboard
More abstract, I got rid of social media and started reading again in order to increase my attention span. "Feed" style sites decimated my ability to concentrate.
Definitely check out kitchensafe
Also there is probably a limit to the deep work per big rest too. Doing a straight 8 hrs is the anthesis of deep work for me.
I find that going to a nice place to work with good company (whom you don't know very well) is quite effective from my prior experience.