Does anyone here have techniques exercises that they practice for improving focus? This question came up in a discussion, and I thought we could make a form topic to compile various ideas.
What has been your experience with things like meditation, pomodoros, and restricting phone use? Are there other techniques people here would be interested in?
I meditate on the aum syllable.
Aum is the bow; the atman is the arrow; Brahman is said to be the mark. It is to be struck by an undistracted mind. Then the atman becomes one with Brahman, as the arrow with the target. ~ Mundaka Upanishad :2.2
In addition to Pomodoro and phone restriction, I like to lock myself in my monastery for 40 days and suffer. The moment I start to enjoy pain, I have a habit.
I always ask myself why does memorizing a lot feel so painful. Maybe it has to do with entropy? When a try to memorize a lot in one go, I feel like that black dude from the animatrix. Like who is even putting this limitations on me?
I’ve found meditation helps a lot with the ability to focus. Just focusing on the entry snd exit of the breath over time aids in the focus process.
This is likely because the typical repeating pattern of mind wanders, and the bringing it back to the object of meditation repeated many times in a single session of maybe a half hour to an hour is trainig in exactly that: refocusing the attention to the desired object, and ignoring distractions for longer and longer periods.
Pomodoro’s work well for me. Without them I easily spend far too much time thinking at a task, instead of actually doing it.
Since they’re (relatively) small units of time, tracking them and ticking them off is nice and can help give a sense of progress towards large goals. You could gamify it in small ways if you wanted. For example, if you decide you’re going to practice the guitar for 200 hours this year, you could make a print-out with 400 bubbles. Each pomodoro, you fill in a bubble with some bright pencil crayon.
Usually the hardest part for me is just getting started. My mind will be pulling in a hundred directions, and I probably don’t really feel like doing whatever task, even if it’s something I “want” to do.
What almost always works is to “scribble” at whatever the task is, and do warmups so the mind shifts more and more towards your task. For example: You want to write something. Instead of staring at a blank page, mash the keyboard and backspace it out a few times. Feel free to write exactly what you’re thinking, “I am typing this but should be typing about pomodoros.” Slap down keywords and sentence fragments… And before long you’re working at it in earnest.
“Appetite comes while eating.”