0) Pick something you want to focus on. It could be your breath, a picture, an article you want to read, the sounds in your environment...
1) Set a timer for the period you want to focus on it for. In the beginning, I'd pick short times, like 2 minutes, or 5 minutes.
2) Try to remain focused on whatever you picked. You will inevitably fail.
3) Do not get angry at yourself! Your mind is like a puppy. It will want to wander, and you're simply going to notice it has wandered, and then pull your attention back. Be gentle with yourself, because just like a puppy, your mind will internalize abuse and snap back at you in the future in unexpected ways.
4) Repeat 3) until the timer rings.
5) Hurray! Repeat this exercise as many times as you want, for the rest of your life. Experiment with how long you like setting the timer.
Curious, do you have any research links on this sort of thing?
#3 is something I've been working on for handling "failure" in general. I think that acknowledging a lack of success as a system whose outputs only include much more than fail/succeed is how something can lead towards, well, failure.
I got introduced to mindfulness through "dialectical behaviour therapy"[0], in a hospital setting. The researcher who developed DBT initially was Marsha Linehan[1], who has many publications you can dig into.
Similarly, mindfulness was introduced into popular medical use for stress reduction, trauma, depression, pain relief, etc. by Jon Kabat-Zinn[2], who also has published articles.
I am sure the mindfulness article on Wikipedia also has useful links, and you could use sci-hub/google scholar/etc. to look up more research articles with the keyword "mindfulness".
Another thing I found it useful for: actually thinking things through. It's common for people to face a problem or a question, spend half a second considering it, and then decide that it's undoable / unsolvable / cannot be improved, etc. You'll ask them about it and they'll tell you, "yeah, I thought about it".
The trick is to ask yourself - have you spent, like five minutes, honest-to-God, to the clock, thinking about it? If the issue really matters to you, it's pretty much the least you can do - pull out the timer, set it to 5 minutes, and start thinking, not stopping until the timer hits zero. I was surprised just how much one could figure out in 5 minutes of focused thinking / self-brainstorming. I try to apply this method more and more often, especially when I get stuck on some choice, or don't know how to proceed from the point I'm in. But also sometimes for totally random ideas - 5 minutes is enough to think about how to start tackling them, and whether it's worth your time.
I've had the most luck with a pomodoro timer. You basically commit to working for 15-30 minutes, then you take a short break. Take the breaks: they make your focus periods better. Meditating for a few minutes during breaks helps me. Try to shift your mindset from always drinking from the dopamine fountain, and tell yourself that it's a reward when you browse for a little bit during a break. Just make sure you start working again when the break is over.
Take care of your body because your brain is part of your body.
1) Get yourself on a sleep schedule. Figure out if you need 7.5 hours, 8 hours, or 9 hours of sleep. Then, pick a time to go to sleep and a time to wake up and stick to it for both weekends and weekdays. You will have exceptions, but it should be the baseline to which you return. If you find you are consistently tired, see a doctor and check if you have thyroid problems or sleep apnea.
2) Excercise vigorously at least a little bit every day. This will help you get sleep.
3) Eat good food. Avoid too much simple sugars. If you don't already cook then either buy a slow cooker and the iOS/Android app Paprika. Or go to /r/mealprepsunday. Alternately, try Soylent as your baseline.
Also, try using the OSX app SelfControl or the windows app ColdTurkey to block websites like these.
I've tried apps but invariably I end up seeking alternatives to get around the blockers I set for myself. Internet is like alcohol for me so it's only fitting that I am the most productive in Internet free zones.
To get around SelfControl requires digging into the source code of the program. This requires at least as much focus+determination as doing the work you are supposed to be doing.
I have read that self-discipline is like a muscle that you can work out, and I believe it. Start off by making a real effort at truly working this muscle for a few minutes. Exercising self-discipline completely for 10 minutes is worth much more than only half exercising it for 60.
I have found a lot of use in timers. It's gimmicky, but putting a timer on my phone, and telling myself I will do only one thing until it goes off really works for me.
I just finished reading "Deep Work" by Cal Newport, and I thought it was very good. He's main points are that focus is in short supply these days, but if you can focus well it can really set you apart. Then he goes on to discussing strategies, like quitting social media. It's a very quick read, and very applicable to programmers (like me).
Stop using external factors as an excuse ("I'd love to focus more, but no one gave me good advice" / "I'll wait until I'm doing it right, according to strangers on the internet") and start working on it.
Recently came across http://timewellspent.io, which you might want to check out. Right now their advice focuses on smartphone use, but I think it's pretty good. There is a longer essay about it here: https://medium.com/swlh/distracted-in-2016-reboot-your-phone... The single best piece of advice in there is to turn off notifications from apps that aren't essential to your life. I only have notifications from messaging apps where I talk to my friends and haven't missed anything.
My two cents: set goals, work to accomplish them. "Focused attention" doesn't live in a vacuum, it only exists if there is something on which to be focused. Find that thing, pursue it. Keep track of what's distracting you, do your best to remove those distractions.
More pragmatically: get rid of social media if you haven't already. You don't have to go dead, just stop logging in every day. My own path was: delete the apps off my phone, stop logging in as often, stop caring about logging in as often, stop caring about the service as much.
> Remove distractions until all that's left is the work that needs to be done.
While this may be easier said than done, in my experience this is the only way I can focus for extended periods (i.e., a week) of time. Had to lock myself in a room to finish my dissertation.
Others in parallel comments have some great ideas, and I would suggest pursuing the ones that you find appealing and think will work. My one piece of advice: go buy a smartwatch. Doesn't have to be fancy (one of the inexpensive Garmin Vivo thingies would do the job), just has to have notifications. Put your phone on silent, and set the watch notifications for only those critical alerts such as phone calls and text messages. Whatever you do, don't put FB or Twitter on there as you'll be defeating the purpose. Put your phone in your pocket or bag and leave it there, knowing that if one of those "kid's school" messages that you're always using as an excuse the check your phone (and not put it on vibrate so as to annoy your cow-orkers) comes through, you'll know about it.
Now you're looking at your phone when you need to, not pulling it out to check something else and "oh, look a hit of dopamine! I mean, someone replied on Twitter!" and falling down the hole.
For example, I don't have Gmail alert the watch (nothing work-related, and rarely needs my immediate attention), rarely use Twitter and don't have a FB account, so those don't get on the watch. I do have the following go to the watch:
Dark Sky (rain alerts)
Calendar
Fidelity ("LC hit it's stop limit, so we sold it for you."; I could do w/o this one.)
Home cameras (e. g., Nest)
Text messages
Phone calls
Airline apps and Apple Wallet
Reminders
A bunch of crap I don't care about (e. g., app for Nissan Leaf) that have never, ever notified me, so I leave it on because lazy.
Of those on the "allowed" list, Calendar, msgs, reminders, and the rare phone call alert me the most, which is what I'm looking for: stuff I need to know now.
This will allow you to cease being inundated, so when you implement some of the mindfulness techniques described by others, you'll likely be in a better state of mind if only because the noise has abated a bit. IOW, it's easier to be mindful of reaching for your phone when you're not doing it in a Pavlovian manner.
Use your calendar to structure the whole day, including some fun things, some chores, things you want to practice, and required events. If you have the whole spectrum of activity bundled together it becomes easier to let go and follow the plan than to get distracted and lose your pace.
I agree with any responses that say disconnect from everything in order to gain focus. Best for me, in my experience, has been meditation in a chair in the morning for 20 minutes before touching any device. I found the book Mindfulness in Plain English to be a good guide. It's freely available online in ebook format
