Fired as a Programmer. My Concentration is messed up

[OBEler]

Hello people,

I need help. I am a multitasking , highly distracted, daydreaming and overthinking and overanalyzing person. And I am a programmer

who needs to focus on coding. Sometimes I go into the flow state and everything is fine. But often I think about something else and loose focus. I make then

many mistakes..

I meditate regulary 30 minutes with do nothing tchnique(let my mind wander until it is quiet). I need some bigger techniques. Any advice which can really help to concentrate better during the day? Before I try nootropics I want to solve this with natural techniques first

[dharm4]

Being distracted, daydreaming, overthinking, analyzing is usually really good if you are doing creative work. Maybe try to do something like that in your free time? I think it could help giving your mind the distraction it seems to desire.

It helps me alot when I come home from work at night to play the guitar, make music. Write down business ideas,...

I'm  also a Software Developer like you, so I know during coding you need focus and concentration.

How long have you been meditating ? You won't see result immediately, this will take years of daily practice to see the big benefits.

I've been meditating for about 4-5 years every day and I'm at a point where I have no problem concentrating during work.

If you are distracted, it could also mean you don't have a clear vision / life purpose. If you have an exciting mission, it's easy to feel motivated. Are you bored by your work? If yes, look for an exciting job you would really love doing.

But it could also be personal problems? If you are worrying about other things in your life, it means you should focus on solving them.

Edited October 8, 2019 by dharm4

[Scholar]

Get a healthy diet, regular excercise and avoid overconsumption of porn is generally something that can always be recommended. And obviously stop multitasking.

[Bill W]

I believe concentration and focus are skills. They require practice. Some people need it more than others. I am the same like you. What has helped me is mindfulness meditation. I pick a sound to focus on. What helped me was the amount of times I did this and not the amount of minutes per day total.

 For me, doing this 5 times a day for 5 minutes was better than one sitting of 20 minutes in the morning and one sitting of 20 minutes at night. 

I found that practising outside of work gave me the best benefits as the benefits then transferred to my work where I was having problems like you.

You can practice concentration even in 30 second intervals if you want. In my experience it all adds up. 

Monkey mind needs daily training.

Think of it like going to the gym for the first time in your life. Slow and steady. Build it up. Don't search for a profound breakthrough. 

As for pills, I wouldn't go there personally. There is way too much content, teachers, practices to access for free and with less risk and less fucking around with your brain chemistry artificially. Unless a doctor thinks there is a medical reason. 

[Leo Gura]

Kriya yoga, concentration practice, neurofeedback training, psychedelics, Modafinil, get a heavy metal urine test to make sure there's no problem there, clean up your diet.

[OBEler]

I do kriya yoga

I do meditation

I do psychedelics (AL-LAD)

I have ultra clean diet

I do regular exercises

I do Holosync

I have various massage tools for stress reduction

I quit porn

but still I am addicted to multi tasking,  I feel very creative compared to others but I loose sometimes the big picture and my thoughts drift to  fantasy land.  I daydream and come up with absurd ideas, this is sometimes pure entertainment . These dreams can come true sometimes, so I take them seriously

-----

Maybe I need this neurofeedback machine. Or another biofeedback machine out there. Tthat would be the next step,

 

 

 

[Leo Gura]

Modafinil and concentration practice.

Neurofeedback can be done at a local profressional center.

[Austin Actualizing]

If you try all the natural methods and still need a extra boost you could see a doc and see if you have ADD/ADHD and get prescribed medication. If you don't want to go the stimulant route, I've heard that Wellbutrin can help those with ADD.  Another option is to limit internet, social media use and see if that helps. A helpful book is: The Shallows: What the internet is doing to our brains. 

Edited October 9, 2019 by Austin Actualizing

[OBEler]

I dont have ADD/ADHD, I already informed me about.  I am total addicted to internet surfing, open 10 tabs, switching from one to another. Maybe I will quit this

[Tetcher]

@OBElerdamn thanks for posting that. I am in the same spot the way you describe your workflow. I myself wasn't fired but quit because I had to work over time on my own time to try to ship on time, often late and it was becoming too stressful. I did yoga and meditation but it didn't help and on some level I lost a lot of respect for those practices because their selling point is that it works but after months of striving it doesn't get better. And even Leo agrees with this because he himself quite those practices. In fact those practices can even hurt you in the regard of your workflow because if you work all days long on the same problem and you live only for that then you hit the flow at a certain moment and for a little period you don't have this ADD-like behavior but if you have practices on the side to do then you always have thoughts that are going in a different direction and you can't even hit the flow, you are always in a state of tension.

Edited October 9, 2019 by Tetcher

[Ry4n]

Using social media on impulse? Whenever I do too much of that it definitely bleeds over into everything else, especially if I was flipping through facebook in the morning, wrecks my concentration. 

[Spiral]

Multitasking is really bad for you, don't do that.

[archi]

12 hours ago, OBEler said:

I dont have ADD/ADHD, I already informed me about.  I am total addicted to internet surfing, open 10 tabs, switching from one to another. Maybe I will quit this

Well, you do too much . Too much control, skip randomly one of the things you do from time to time, waste some time, it is irrelevant anyway . 

[Aeris]

L theanine + weed + good food + sleep 7-8 hours + taking ritalin for a year showed me what a stupid hard focus is. ( almost roboticly stupid, but I took a bit of weed with it aswell ) maybe that's me but weed makes me hella focus hard.

 

Coffee + thea = good combo for long run and steady focus ( not too much, but not nothing ) I would stay on low dose of coffee and push for high dose of theanine. 

find your substances for helping with it, but nothing beats having a true interest.

but still I do my day as multiple part, multiple exercices for the same purpose ( mastery visual + mastery music & sound + knowledge myself on some books )

most of my day is spend on art goal divided, contemplation etc.. there is no smartness in doing 10 hours the droid. Be a smart droid instead

Edited October 9, 2019 by Aeris

[John Iverson]

On 10/9/2019 at 5:59 AM, Leo Gura said:

Kriya yoga, concentration practice, neurofeedback training, psychedelics, Modafinil, get a heavy metal urine test to make sure there's no problem there, clean up your diet.

How about doing weed? Every other week? , i am doing meditation, Nootropic, Sulbutiamin, Reishi Mushroom, psychedelics whenever i feel doing it.. whenever  i took weed i recognize my concentration for meaningful activities is super, for one week, so i thought it could grow my adhd? Idk.. but i know there is a addictive potential there... i am planning to use weed for now while i am working out my schooling to for me to ojt in Neurofeedback and i will work there, after i graduated and there i will avail it... because doing psychedelics is hardcore it is tripping that i cannot see the potential of it for concentration, unless i could buy DPT and 5meodmt here in the philippines.. mushroom is easy access here and LSD, tho when it comes to LSD i cannot buy tester here so I don't buy LSD right now.. i am afraid if i buy tester in abroad the custom will question it so even tho i really like to use it I am not pursuin it too much.. so when it comes to psychedelics mushroom is the only one i am using.. and as i said taking it is hardcore.. idk how it could improve my ADHD .. if you can say something to open up a possibility then i will use mushroom then for my improvement of my adhd... 

Edited October 10, 2019 by John Iverson