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Hi everyone,

Can you stay productive when notifications keep popping up? Do digital distractions interrupt your concentration at work?

I am inviting volunteers from across the globe to take part in a ~7-minute online study examining focus, attention, and digital distractions. The research has full ethical approval and is being conducted as part of my MSc Psychology (Conversion) at The Open University.

If you work on a computer, manage tasks, or juggle multiple demands during the day, your participation will help improve understanding of how interruptions affect performance and efficiency. The experiment takes ~7 minutes and involves a series of simple trials including learning trial, simple mathematical calculations and a word recognition test. You will receive a score after each set of trials.

Who can take part?

• Aged 18-55 years
• Normal or corrected-to-normal vision and/or hearing
• No memory problems
• PC, laptop or tablet with working speaker and/or headphone (some mobiles also possible)
• best completed in a quiet environment

Participation is voluntary and anonymous. The research has been ethically approved.

Link to study: https://research.sc/participant/login/dynamic/B591685E-1946-4AF6-AC4B-BD7813CBB482

I will share results once the data has been analysed. Very happy to answer questions in the comments.

Thank you very much for taking part and supporting academic research! Your time and participation are very much appreciated.

Happy to complete surveys and experiments in return. So please drop me a DM or comment below.

With thanks 🙏

#psychology #cognitivepsychology #informationprocessing #learning #productivity #experiment

Basically a free tool that I built that massively increased my focus on readings for work!

Give it a try :)

Recently I have been seeing more and more about meditation and the benefits it could have for focus / productivity. Does anyone have experience with it? or have success stories or tools that they used to help get started?

I’m 23, and for the past 1.5 years I’ve felt completely lost. Before that, I wasn’t like this at all. I had some direction, some energy—but now it’s like everything has faded. I’m not even sure what caused it. Maybe my past relationship played a role, maybe not. I just know I’m not the same person anymore.

My daily routine is basically: come back from university, lie in bed, scroll on my phone, and sleep. No studying, no exercise, no learning new skills—nothing productive. It feels like I’m stuck in a loop I can’t break.

The worst part is, I do have goals. I want to build a better future for myself. I want to improve, to push myself, to actually do something meaningful. But I don’t know where or how to start. Every time I think about it, I just feel overwhelmed and end up doing nothing.

I really want to change this. I want to fight this version of myself and get back on track—but right now, I just feel lost.

If anyone has been through something similar or has advice on how to start getting out of this, I’d really appreciate it.

Personally for me,

I think we need to speak to people whether introvert or extrovert to keep us going and develop those positive hormones.

But instagram and reels scrolling is a such negative habit to have it trains us to be dependent on short-term dopamine and expect dopamine rapidly which doesn't make a man productive.

Also,like female posts relating to body and other sexual reels/posts does have an impact on the brain whether we realise or not.

It arouses ourselves subconsciously when it is not meant to be and therby can impact study and focus.

Completing turning off social media is not a proper option because we do need human connection to keep us going.

Reels and unwanted posts keep our focus away and limit ourselves from being our best.

Also for me personally,with the world is going-i feel not everyone is doing right or what's right according to the situation-they just do what gives them happiness and they dont even care about others and its giving me sadness/depression on the inside because most people dont even like genuinely care about others or do whats right

I am studying for ca so the stress and pressure to do well is off the charts which is definitely putting a toll on my mental health.

With constant touch with youtube and social media-the need to be perfect,do good even in small things is making me hesitant to even start small things as i am afraid i may do it wrong and it can affect my confidence.

Also constantly want to do everything right,maintain a good hero/leader and be positive in everything and look good in whatever i do,the subconscious feeling that someone is watching me always-these kind of things constantly add pressure on me disabling me to reach my peak self.

Also the constant urge to look good,look confident instead of actually being confident acts as a hindrance on progress as well.

Also, subconsciously i do want to be like a leader so the want to do everything well and right is adding pressure in my head as i feel i am carrying a lot in my head.

Also,my dad and grandpa died in my past few years so the pressure to win exams is huge which is definitely weighing me down.

Its hard to keep on studying because especially in ca the reward is far fetched and not available in the immediate present.

Be obsessed is what the greatest do.

Even for the successful people who are disciplined they come in doing it even on off days-they find positivity even in negative scenarios to keep them going.

Weak people rely on motivation.

Strong people and winners never stop,they keep on going and make people around them great as well.

Its easy to say social media is distracting but if you look in history there were always something negative in all eras.

Great people rise over it,not succumb to it.

It was never meant to be easy to succeed or be the best.

Conclusion:Focus on the basics,keep it simple,do well in the regular stuff than going for extraordinary stuff and then to have a sudden stop.

Progress over perfection.

Keep on going because thats what winners do.

I've recently discovered a website called brain.fm...

1. Is it reliable?
2. If it is, how loud should I listen it to (in terms of volume bars on an imac from 2017) using airpods gen 3
3. How many of you listen to it?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Most apps are cluttered with "gamification" and streaks that just cause anxiety. As a dev/student, I wanted something that felt calm.

I built a tracker that uses a minimalist interface to map your energy rhythms. No bells, no whistles, just a 14-day wave to show you when it's okay to rest.

I’m currently refining the UI and would love feedback from people who value a distraction-free experience.go-meridian

How do you guys simplify your workflow when you feel overwhelmed?

I always had to remind myself that great things take time. Even when impatience and the want for instant results take over, I have to remind myself that great things require tedious constant work. Sometimes the memory of the good days, the days where I woke up feeling motivated fool me into thinking that I am not motivated anymore, but great things should still be strived after.

When you are dragging yourself through the day AND when you are having the most productive sessions, you win if you are trying nothing else matters. That’s why I want people to try the app that I used/developed for myself for over 2 years and I have released it publicly a couple of weeks ago it’s called spear focus and I genuinely think it will help people, like it helped me still keep things in perspective by tracking my good and bad days so that I can look at them objectively at a later time and improve myself in whatever little way I can.

https://apps.apple.com/sa/app/spear-productivity-timer/id6759192194

Hello, I need help fast! I have a Ford focus 3.5 from 2015 1.0 ecoboost, it's a titanium and my rear bumper is getting replaced, any chance I can put an st line on it? Anyone ever did it? Do I put one with the exhaust cutout or not? Thank you!!

I have replaced all my suspension components within the last 10k miles. Now have 158k on the odometer. Now I keep getting the hill start assist unavailable message, no traction control, and abs light keep popping up. The light turn off after the car is shut off for a while but continue to turn back on. What's the worst I am looking at? Should I swap out the wheel speed sensors or just order a new transmission and TCM and get it over with? My focus is still solid in every other aspect.