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Re:Ask HN: How to maintain focus during long, critical-think... by brudgers on Monday July 31, 2017 @01:13PM (#14893893)
Early in my career, I had a similar frustration. I took a paper notepad and documented everything I did. I planned on doing it for a couple of weeks. On the afternoon of the second day, I sat down with my manager and showed that the longest period I had without structural interruption was about twenty minutes. By structural interruption, I mean things that require response and cannot be tuned out (and not things like loud coworkers). My responsibilities did not change, instead other people's authority to interrupt me at will was reduced.

That was many years ago. These days, I pull all-nighters in part due to habit from working in environments where all-nighters until it is done (for some definition of 'it' and 'done') were normalized, but in part because I know that my focus before about 16:00 is often limited and increases throughout the evening and into the morning. I'm not recommending all-nighters, because the fact it works for me has no bearing on it working for you.

I am recommending figuring out what works for you based on what works for you and not based on what works for someone else.

Good luck.

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