I am working on a very important personal project. There is a lot do and accomplish.
I am motivated every bit, but there are times when I lose my concentration and waste my time in the web. I usually read articles from programming.reddit.com or some question/answers in StackOverflow etc. All these websites are programming related but still, I wish I spent more time programming rather than reading about programming.
Do you have any tips/tricks to keep your concentration?
I have ADD, and find it very difficult to concentrate in general, even moreso when it's a personal project that there is no incentive for completing.
I found that location is important to me. If I set aside a place in my house to get work done, then that's the only place I'm able to work. But it also means that if I expend the energy to move my laptop down there and get everything plugged in, then I'll actually work for the duration I'm down there. Also, if I feel like I'm losing focus, I leave the area. That place must only be for work.
When I try to work from other places (I.e. on the couch where the TV is) I find that I can't focus on my work, even if the TV isn't on. I'll get distracted by online things, and it's because I'm in an area which encourages procrastination and relaxation, not work.
Hope this helps,
Setup your router to block your favorite websites during working hours.
I like to listen to music.
For some reason, at least for me, that curbs my desire to waste time surfing the web, etc.
Play some background music. I almost always have my headphones on, listening to my iPod or Pandora. It keeps me from getting distracted.
Well I'm still a student, so what I do is I bring my laptop to one of the empty computer labs and work there (or another spot in school if the labs are busy). Maybe it's because it's an academic location that puts me in a working mood. When I'm at home I usually can't get any work done, because like devinb said, it's an area which encourages procrastination and relaxation, not work.
One of the guys I work with wears earplugs to keep the noise out. It's not my kind of thing, but he finds it a big help.
I find two things work very nicely for me.
Of the two, #1 is probably the most important, as it keeps me in the zone. But, you do need to get up every once in awhile and walking around for a minute gets the blood flowing and makes it so you can more easily get back into work.
When I am wasting time, it is generally in forums or stackoverflow.com, so I guess I need to put on my headphones now.
Paul Graham of y-combinator uses 2 computers, one for work and one for Firefox, that way he feels self-conscious about sitting in front of the Firefox machine because it means he is not working.
You could plan your time, you say now I code during 2 hours then I surf during 30 minutes. You write it down in the morning and you use a timer and you don't switch activity before it rings...
For me - and I admit this isn't for everyone - 1/2 hour of listening to some techno dance music .. say Sirius Area | 38 - paired with several shots of black coffee tends to keep me in the groove