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I admit I haven't read the full article yet, but personally, could easily replace "Adolescent boys struggle with disorganization and distraction" with "Late mid

I admit I haven't read the full article yet, but personally, could easily replace "Adolescent boys struggle with disorganization and distraction" with "Late middle-aged men struggle with disorganization and distraction." I'm decently intelligent, and have done fairly well academically and in my career. One of my traits, for better or for worse, is being detail-oriented (for me meaning that I don't feel comfortable until all the details of the thing I'm working on are known and taken care of). That trait has always been a double-edged sword: it's helped me as an engineer, but I also have a tendency to be overwhelmed and easily distracted, and it can make it hard to prioritize. Since the advent of smartphones and modern "notification channels", however, it's definitely skewed much more to the negative. I feel like my concentration and focus have been totally shot, and, saddest for me, my creativity has taken a huge dive. I've also spent thousands on coaches/therapy, but it's still a constant battle that feels analogous to I think what people with strong addictions feel.

senkora 3y ago
> I also have a tendency to be overwhelmed and easily distracted, and it can make it hard to prioritize. This resonates strongly with me. I've had some success by building personal productivity systems/workflows and sticking to them, but it definitely feels like I'm developing coping mechanisms to compensate for something that others don't even need to think about.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
notjoemama 3y ago
Whenever I've felt impacted by those things I simply eliminate them. I had TikTok installed for a while. One weekend I realized I had been scrolling for 5 hours but to me it felt like maybe 90 minutes? That's when I uninstalled it. I felt like my ability to listen or pay acute attention for long length of time was diminished. Eliminating the app let me get back to the level of performance I had before. Self reflecting, there's maybe a certain kind of power in not-knowing, or knowing there is a lot of information I simply don't have to be aware of. Political news, well, news in general strikes me as a similar case. I know going into it "if it bleeds it leads". If I consume that, am I really getting a true picture of reality? Probably not. So is there really as much value in making sure I keep up with the latest points? I don't feel like it matters.
- I_Am_Nous 3y ago
  I've been on a similar trajectory. I realized I was using Reddit 40 hours a week and quit. A little while later, I got on Twitter and used it too much as well. I'm working to not do the same on HN and took a long "no social media" break before even coming to the site. As a result I was able to clear out a lot of the noise in my head and that has helped me gain focus. I cut news out as well and only rarely check what's going on in the world. I also converted to Catholicism and that has helped me gain a lot of peace that I didn't have before. I really don't feel the need to stress about something I know is in God's hands anyway -- it isn't up to me to change the world if that's not my purpose.
- wildrhythms 3y ago
  I remember in college playing Counter Strike religiously, until one time during a game I got a call from my furious theatre director asking where I was and why I wasn't at rehearsal. I had completely lost track of time, and was so ashamed that I uninstalled the game that night, and even now years later I haven't reinstalled it since. Obviously I never missed another rehearsal, and it helped my grades too.
- y-c-o-m-b 3y ago
  This doesn't work for me unfortunately. I am on my phone maybe an hour a day tops anymore. In fact I find tech and gadgets somewhat repulsive these days. I visibly cringe whenever someone wants to show me a video or something on their phone. The problem is my job. I'm a software developer which means I'm flooded with disorganization and distractions for many hours a day, five days a week. There's no escape from that other than leaving the field entirely and that's no longer a practical option at this point in life.
moltar 3y ago
Not sure if you’ll find this helpful. But I feel like I have similar traits. And these can also be sometimes labelled as ADHD (hyper focusing). What helped we was to clean my life aggressively of all the distractions. I don’t use social media. I don’t subscribe to newsletters. I turn off most alerts on apps and use focus mode with whitelisted set of apps most of the time. I funnel all content to RSS as much as possible. For newsletters I use kill the newsletter forwarder. Even HN I funnel thru RSS. Then I read RSS feeds only once or twice a day, deliberately, like a book or a newspaper. And there’ll be a couple of days per week where I might not even read at all. I found this sort of bounded consumption highly beneficial.

senkora 3y ago

> I also have a tendency to be overwhelmed and easily distracted, and it can make it hard to prioritize. This resonates strongly with me. I've had some success by building personal productivity systems/workflows and sticking to them, but it definitely feels like I'm developing coping mechanisms to compensate for something that others don't even need to think about.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

notjoemama 3y ago

Whenever I've felt impacted by those things I simply eliminate them. I had TikTok installed for a while. One weekend I realized I had been scrolling for 5 hours but to me it felt like maybe 90 minutes? That's when I uninstalled it. I felt like my ability to listen or pay acute attention for long length of time was diminished. Eliminating the app let me get back to the level of performance I had before. Self reflecting, there's maybe a certain kind of power in not-knowing, or knowing there is a lot of information I simply don't have to be aware of. Political news, well, news in general strikes me as a similar case. I know going into it "if it bleeds it leads". If I consume that, am I really getting a true picture of reality? Probably not. So is there really as much value in making sure I keep up with the latest points? I don't feel like it matters.

I_Am_Nous 3y ago
I've been on a similar trajectory. I realized I was using Reddit 40 hours a week and quit. A little while later, I got on Twitter and used it too much as well. I'm working to not do the same on HN and took a long "no social media" break before even coming to the site. As a result I was able to clear out a lot of the noise in my head and that has helped me gain focus. I cut news out as well and only rarely check what's going on in the world. I also converted to Catholicism and that has helped me gain a lot of peace that I didn't have before. I really don't feel the need to stress about something I know is in God's hands anyway -- it isn't up to me to change the world if that's not my purpose.
wildrhythms 3y ago
I remember in college playing Counter Strike religiously, until one time during a game I got a call from my furious theatre director asking where I was and why I wasn't at rehearsal. I had completely lost track of time, and was so ashamed that I uninstalled the game that night, and even now years later I haven't reinstalled it since. Obviously I never missed another rehearsal, and it helped my grades too.
y-c-o-m-b 3y ago
This doesn't work for me unfortunately. I am on my phone maybe an hour a day tops anymore. In fact I find tech and gadgets somewhat repulsive these days. I visibly cringe whenever someone wants to show me a video or something on their phone. The problem is my job. I'm a software developer which means I'm flooded with disorganization and distractions for many hours a day, five days a week. There's no escape from that other than leaving the field entirely and that's no longer a practical option at this point in life.

moltar 3y ago

Not sure if you’ll find this helpful. But I feel like I have similar traits. And these can also be sometimes labelled as ADHD (hyper focusing). What helped we was to clean my life aggressively of all the distractions. I don’t use social media. I don’t subscribe to newsletters. I turn off most alerts on apps and use focus mode with whitelisted set of apps most of the time. I funnel all content to RSS as much as possible. For newsletters I use kill the newsletter forwarder. Even HN I funnel thru RSS. Then I read RSS feeds only once or twice a day, deliberately, like a book or a newspaper. And there’ll be a couple of days per week where I might not even read at all. I found this sort of bounded consumption highly beneficial.