I really need som tips on how to avoid getting trapped by my own hyperfokusing.
I very often i get completely consumed by either youtube shorts or something similar and i loose complete sense of time and spends literally 5 hours on just doom scrolling and wasting time. The worst part is that I’m hyperly aware that I’m doing it the whole time and I really want to stop but I just won’t shake myself off of it. I feel so bad because i should go walk the dog or go do my hobies instead. It happens the most often when I’m supposed to work from home and it makes the guilt feel even worse. If only I could do something for myself at least while not actually working. The only way I’ve found working so far is blocking the websites from me using blockers but I know that I’ll just either circumvent them or find something else that’s equally bad for me to hyperfokus on. And I do have legitimate reasons to use YouTube sometimes for work for tutorials etc so blocking it doesn’t really work so well for me.
How do I get out when I find myself in that trapped state? Let me know how you are dealing with it.
I wanna add that I’m medicated with methylphenidate but it doesn’t really work on getting out of the trap if I’ve first gotten in.
Turn off all notifications on the phone. This is the easiest and most effective way to stay away from it.
Some great advice here, probably repeating others a bit but stuff that works for me:
- to do lists for each day / physically writing stuff down
- Generally work in 4 blocks (~60 - 90 mins each), 2 in the morning with a break in between then the same in the afternoon after a decent lunch break. (Afternoons are always less productive mind)
- Seperate work/home laptops. Only work stuff happens on work laptop.
- if I find I’m not being productive I just leave my desk for 5 mins then come back and try again.
- lots of walks
For YouTube stuff I’d recommend an alternative front end like freetube. Much less in your face with throwing vids at you, plus no ads!
I have separate logins on my machine for work vs home.
I also have my obsidian task manager synced on both machines so when non work stuff pops into my head, I add it to my list to work on after work in my personal task manager and get back to work.
I have a sacred 30mins at the start of the day to drink a coffee, and review my work task list, and plan what I will do today. From there, I ONLY work on what’s on the list, unless my boss rings me and changes the priority (or equivalent person etc).
As for not getting sucked into these things at all: I just avoid anything non work related while working, until I’ve achieved my list of work deliverables for the day, and finish work…
That works for me, until I have some work related YouTube video or equiv… I had a 4hr YT Shorts spiral the other day, was just lucky it started at 430pm!
I’ve since found that the DuckDuckGo browser let’s me watch YT videos without going to YT, so I don’t get the autoplay trap sprung one when the work related video is finished, which has helped a lot.
I also have my obsidian task manager synced on both machines so when non work stuff pops into my head, I add it to my list to work on after work in my personal task manager and get back to work.
This is my first time meeting another obsidian user on lemmy! What plugin do you use to manage your task? (I use habit tracker 21 myself)
Strict separation of work and personal devices, plus focus mode on my private phone for the work hours.
I often end up hyper focusing on the wrong work tasks, but at least they’re work related.
Smoking weed and playing video games most of the day hasnt worked so far but im no quitter
WFH and the biggest simple hack. Drink water… If properly hydrated you release fluid approx once an hour. Enough to get up and should allow for reset.
No data on this approach other personal experience
Awesome idea… But you won’t believe how good I’ve become at holding 😅
My Dad was a truck driver and died from bladder cancer. Please don’t hold it when you don’t have to.
New fear unlocked
I work from home, and I have to use lots of methods. Then it works.
Just two examples:
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I always have to work strictly with todo-lists. When it’s not on a list, it’s not getting done. On the other hand, putting it on the list, rather than doing it, feels like 55 % of the mental effort.
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Implementation intention: My brain takes offence to “must do now” orders. Instead, when I catch myself on a youtube/scrolling binge, I set a trigger (e. g. time, end of video) at which I do one item from the list. If there is no list, I write the list. That way, I get to continue enjoying for a bit longer, but now guilt-free (!), and can continue guilt-free after doing that one thing.
I might steal this.
How can you steal an advice that’s given to you?
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Memes always cheer me up
My husband deals with that, and one thing that has helped him quite a bit is setting alarms. If he knows he is taking on an extended task, he will set an alarm on his phone for every hour or so. When it goes off, it distracts him from whatever he was doing and interrupts anything he is watching, so he is reminded to get back on task.
Another tool is accountability to another person. If he is having a bad focus day, he will sometimes ask me to bug him if I notice he is distracted for too long. Use this sparingly. I have been this person for a few people with ADHD, and using this too often has resulted in me being responded to like a parent asking their kid to stop playing games and eat their dinner. You don’t want to end up viewing your friends and partners as though they are an authority figure.
As someone with ADHD and who also works from home 4 days a week, alarms are your friend. I have specific alarms set for tasks i need to get done every day aside from my main duties.
Depending on your job, setting up automations can also help. Anything to make your life easier will give your brain more bandwidth which ive found helps me focus better. For me, i have a script that automatically refreshes a webpage that i need to monitor all the time. I always keep this tab separate so that when it does refresh, i almost always notice.
I’m an automation engineer so this is literally my job. I’ve automated everything I can but since it’s my job it literally never ends.
It’s just the truth 😂 and they are paying me for it 😎
As another eng, let me suggest two things:
- Macrodroid can be configured to announce the hour every hour:
I find that helps me a ton.
2. Consider looking at getting a “Time Timer”. They are a little pricey for what they are but they a) move the alarm from digital – which is a mental space for me – to physical, and that seems to matter for my noticing it; and b) seems to be the only commonly available timer that ticks in a way that matches an analog clock, which allows you to align it with the current clock and see the hour burn down in front of you.
If you find something that helps you avoid “well… What’s 15 minutes more? This would feel good to be done…”, let me know. I’m now very aware of how much time I’m spending on shits and giggles.
Awesome idea. There is actually one of those time timers at work that noone uses. I’ll steal that for my WFH days. I used to use it at work myself before I was medicated and it helped me a lot but I forgot about it completely because while at work I don’t really need it anymore now I have my meds.
TIME TIMER. that’s my alpha and omega. Game changer.👍🤟💪
Ah yea i see how that would be an issue. Someone else in this post made a comment about switching meds. Might be worth talking to your doc about it.
That said, its not uncommon for those of us with adhd to try to find dopamine when doing things we dont wanna do. Sometimes having a video on in the background can help and distract your brain a bit. The key is finding something that doesnt distract you too much.
Stuff you watched before can be good.
Alarms actually does work. I use it for taking my meds and it’s working really well. I should maybe use it more for work as well. Thanks
Have you tried the pomodoro method to try to help force yourself to take breaks?
The worst part is that I’m hyperly aware that I’m doing it the whole time and I really want to stop but I just want shake myself off of it.
I’d probably seek profession help on that one. That sounds like a legitimate addition.
Unfortunately I’ve got nothing to add, just wanted to let you know I’m in the same boat. The feeling of guilt and the inability to structure my day are making me depressed. The company I’m working for doing an absurd amount of “status meetings” is the icing on the cake.
When medicated I feel like it’s easier to stick to a task, but it doesn’t help me with picking the right task so I think I understand some of what you feel. The Time Timer has helped me sometimes when I just need the extra bit of external help. The act of picking it up and deciding to use it helps reaffirm my intention of working on a thing, and then the visual indicator of time passing helps my really really bad time sense to be moored to reality a bit better. The mental UHG of beginning the work task seems to melt away pretty quick after that initial step. Then the medication helps to let me proceed without my mind wandering. Other stuff is a necessity like physical activity and enough sleep. Getting out of a misdirected focus is tough, so I feel for ya.
Discuss with your doctor that’s prescribing your ADHD meds. It’s quite possible another medication or a different dose will work better.
I can only say that I had a very similar issue with concentration at work while WFH and getting on medication resolved it.
Beats the hell out of me. I’ve got no clue how I manage to get anything done at all, my focus just slides right off work.
I just avoid working from home.
