One of my code mentors always put emphasis on the words “focus on one thing”. These words still echo in my mind daily. Focusing on one Thing™ and doing it until it’s done makes you perform the task faster and better. Also the satisfaction you get after completing a Thing™ is much higher.

During my day job I have to be organized. I’m a programmer I can build houses from the bottom up in my mind. With garages and a tree house next to it. But my gift of having ADD sometimes (read: a lot) prevents me finishing stuff the same day due to distractions - internet, emails, calls, messages, links to dancing cats (“Oh it’s sooo cute - and there is another one and another and another!“ <click><click><click>).

My ADD manifests itself everyday in misplacing bike keys and having to go through every pocket, while on my way to work walking back to my house checking to see if I closed the door because I was doing something else at the same time, overdue bills including fines because I forgot to pay them on time, going to the supermarket with a list in my head and coming back with completely different items, not knowing what item on my todo list is more important than that idea I just had and following that for a while. And I can go on for a while. The list is endless.

Thankfully over the years I learned to switch rather fast between distractions to get back on track. Or rather I can identify the distraction and not get sucked into a void that can last for hours.

With this post i’d like to share some of the techniques I use at work, on a daily basis, to get stuff done are:

  • Notifications. Notifications on my phone are turned off. No vibration, no popups, no nothing. The only thing I let slip through the cracks are my girlfriends texts - since those are important. Apple put this really handy function on their devices, called ‘Do not disturb’. Both Mac and iPhones support this.
  • Music. Baroque, Classical, Electro (as monotonous as possible). These blocks out my active thoughts allowing me to focus. Lately I’ve been listening a lot on SoundCloud.
  • Headphones, even without music. Co-workers see this and make the assumption you are listening to music.
  • Pomodoro timer. I use Tomighty. I work in chunks of 25 or 50 minutes to focus on one thing only. Want to get started with Pomodoro?
  • Notes. My sweet Notes, what would I do without you? Or where would my notes go?
  • Wunderlist. I’ve tried a lot of todo apps, but nothing seems to fit my needs. My personal winners is Wunderlist (mostly because it syncs all of my devices)
  • Moving. I tend to move a lot when programming, my head, fingers and hands when not typing. Did not figure out why exactly but it helps me process information. This moving is only while programming, with everyday stuff I don’t have this.
  • Meditation. Helps me a lot. And brings back my mind when it ‘wanders’. 3 times a week about 10-30 minutes depending on how much time I’m willing to create for it.
  • Read. Actually reading on how your brain works, the way how patterns are formed and mapping that on how that applies to yourself, helped me enormously. Learning to see/recognize distractions and acting on them as they happen has probably been my biggest fight, but also with the biggest reward. Actually Googling stuff that bothers you or are frustrated about, you will be surprised how many people run into the same thing.
  • Teach - Explaining the thing you know to someone who doesn’t. When explaining stuff, it works better for the receiver if you tell a focused story. So you need to think about what you are saying to get the message across.
  • Write - A book, blog, stories, notes, whatever. And practice doing so. Again this helps you focus and structure your thoughts.

The last two helped me enormously since they both require to get organized first, or at least organize my thoughts before I write them down of vocalize them. Or actually I should say; it forces me to stop and think about it before externalizing it. And that is, for me, a good thing.

Repeat after me: From now on I will only focus on starting and finishing one task at a time.

Hopefully this list can help or inspire you to take action in your life as well.