I'd like to dive in headfirst by declaring that in no way expert, or a
medical professional in any way, shape, or form.
For the
past few years I have been dealing with a fair amount of focus loss and
other issues, and alongside those with depression, and thus, here are
some of my tried-and-true methods to help you get on with things in
life, as best as you can, with the help of technology, or limiting the
distractions it brings on.
Completely cutting off notification sounds and pop-ups from chat apps, email services, etcetera is a step forward to boosting concentration. All operating systems now have that option built-in, whether its called Focus mode on Windows or any of its analogies.
Well, another essential part of limiting eyesore is the use of
dark/black theming throughout your OS and work software. Happily for us
(me), every mobile and desktop OSs have that, iOS included. Make sure to
enable it wherever possible.
Also, in your browser, you can resort
to Dark Reader to invert webpage
colors and style them according to your preferences.
In your word processor, or IDE (integrated development environment), it is good to enable full-screen modes, focus modes, hide unnecessary UI tabs and so on to make sure nothing else is taking up your screen real estate. The FN + F11 shortcut is widely used, so make sure to try that too.
The extreme of minimal yet highly functional, versatile ala "desktop
operating system" is Google's beautifully-designed Chrome OS. It does
require a fair bit of learning, but the end results are astonishing. No
hundred updates to install, instant power on and off. There aren't
enough words that I can come up with to express my feelings about it. We
sure do see now premium Chromebooks hit the market, hands down beating
the competition Windows land and Apple in speed and battery life.
Google's Pixelbook Go, the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook, Asus's Flip C436
are just a few examples of that.
If you don't have the funds for a
Chromebook right now, you can repurpose your current machine by
installing
Neverware's CloudReady fork of
Chromium OS. It's excellent!
Listening to my favorite tunes and podcasts does have a positive impact (in my case) to my productivity process.
Now that we have access to portable computers with mediocre to great battery endurance in 2020 with enough horsepower for writing and web/software development on the go, you should consider bringing your laptop in a park or somewhere silent enough.
Coffee certainly does play a big role in my life. I do enjoy a few cups of black, sugar-free coffee every single morning to freshen up and kick the day off.
If you do freelance work, then you should cut yourself some slack. By that, I mean that you should have short breaks every now and then to clear your mind.
Working out has those stimuli that impact happiness and productivity, and giving an energy boost. A half-hour-long walk does wonders, though I go for longer walks and I love doing it every single day of the week.
Distractions are the Achilles' heel of doing any type of work, and
overcoming those isn't such an easy task, is it? Having a clear state of
mind, only the essential tools needed for the job as well as the right
space to do your thing are much of necesity for a well-productive day,
albeit not so simple to achieve.
You do you, stay healthy, and try
to find a balance between life and work.