OrphanWilde comments on Stupid questions thread, October 2015 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: philh 13 October 2015 07:39PM

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Comment author: OrphanWilde 16 October 2015 02:15:56PM 4 points [-]

Difficulty concentrating: A mental slipperiness, like trying not to think of something, or clench water in your fist. The harder I attempt to concentrate, the more prone my mind is to go zipping off in another direction entirely. I tend to be most productive when I have a large number of potential tasks to work on, and one critical one - I'll get all my lesser tasks done in no time at all, as my mind careens off the critical task over and over again. I'm least productive when I have a single task to work on, particularly if it's trivial to do. Indeed, the faster I can get it done, the harder it is to do it.

Curiously, I have -zero- problems with difficulty concentrating when extremely tired, and if there's something I really need to do that I'm making no progress on, I'll generally do it around 3:30-4:30 AM.

Comment author: Lumifer 16 October 2015 02:47:14PM 2 points [-]

Curiously, I have -zero- problems with difficulty concentrating when extremely tired

Not sure it's uncommon, I have a similar mode when I'm exhausted and still need to finish something. It's a kinda "you're not going anywhere until this is done" mode and when I'm tired my speed goes down, but my ability to focus goes up.

Comment author: Tem42 16 October 2015 11:53:57PM 2 points [-]

I find that it is much easier to enter a state of flow late at night. This does not equate, in my case, to being able to concentrate on undesirable tasks, but does help with tasks that are simply boring.