In my case, the thing was not about eliminating distractions, but about providing a stimulating enough challenges. Eliminate distractions all you want - if the

In my case, the thing was not about eliminating distractions, but about providing a stimulating enough challenges. Eliminate distractions all you want - if the task is boring, and the environment not stimulating, you'll sooner become crazy than focus. I also used to stress a lot about not being able to focus. And stress alone hindered my ability even further. Which caused me to stress even more, and so on. The revelation came, when my coach asked me "so, does stressing about work help you?" I decided to take it light - if I cannot work, so be it. Lo and behold, a couple days after letting go, I went into an uberdrive, and built a product which I struggled with for months.. Right now, my recipe is: - if the work doesn't flow, I let it go. I go for a walk, I do sports, wait for a muse. And have faith that it will come - I try to keep my environment stimulating - I had to go a couple friendships, and stop doing activities which no longer helped me develop myself - I try to have a couple kinds of activities lined up - so when I cannot focus on programming, I do marketing, or accounting in my startup. - A good diet helps a lot as well. But everybody is different. It's important to discover what works and what doesn't - in your case removing distractions clearly doesn't work. Perhaps you could try changing your learning habits (e.g. use Inkling, or Coursera instad of traditional books, or try group learning?), or try finding a different subject, or a different approach to the subject?