Could you give me some tips to stay focused on deep work?

I'm extremely adhd, so I like to put on music, I try to use headphones or a loud speaker that drowns out noise around me because by giving myself one big distraction, I eliminate all other little things like shuffling papers, dishes being done, people talking or whatever else the issues are. I turn the TV off and put in my headphones.

I would normally say this isn’t something with easy tips, but actually I just got this app called Forest where you grow trees for the amount of time you work. If you leave the app to do something else on your phone, it dies. As a deeply sentimental person, this has helped me tremendously. I actually want to work because I want to grow my trees! Not to mention that it keeps me off my phone and away from distractions.

It took me years to master focus and sometimes I still have days when I don’t feel super focused but I do my best. First I organize myself with a calendar and do what I set out for that day. When I’m doing the work I make sure my environment is ready for productiveness. Like for instance getting a bottle of water, comfortable seat, noice canceling headphones set to just hear silence or if you prefer work music that’s ok too. I set my phone to downtime mode (doesn’t let me use certain apps). I work for like 45 min to an hour and take a break to stretch and refill my water and continue. Hope that helps

I struggle with the subject of staying focused as well. My mind wanders when I settle down to do a task. Or I get interrupted. There are a thousand distractions to pull me away from my focus. Don’t really have to prep and create to do lists so that I don’t end up doing something completely different.

Try a preparation routine. Marie Kondo talks about the fact that she can’t focus on work if her space is not clutter free because her mind automatically wanders to all of the clutter that is visually present.

Try clearing your space completely and then prepare a list of tasks. Go through the list and apply the Warren Buffet technique of circling your top 5 priorities.

Next download the Pomodoro App. It’s a time focus app that times your focus and rest time. It’s easier for me to tell myself that I will check my phone in 25 minutes than to completely shut that behavior down.

A lot of this is about self discovery. Can you focus with music? Or do you need silence? Do you focus better in the morning or the afternoon? Take advantage of what work for you.

I hope this helps!

Things actually worked for me is
1- wearing headphones. Even if you dont listen to anything, just wearing it helps. Because your mind expects some sweet emotion which was previously associated with listening songs with focus. So it helps as a queue for your mind that it's the time to focus
2- Double Coffee. Black one which lets me sit up focused for hours
3- Forcing ourselves to sit in the same place looking at same computer screen/book for small chunk of time. Like 30 mins. Even if you dont read or work the whole 30mins, it will give you a good start. Thanks for asking

Some tips for doing deep work include finding a quite place, setting a timer so you get at least 20 minutes of time, avoiding distractions and picking important work that warrants using deep work time.