Only being able to focus on work late at night

[Potfullofstuff]

I'm working on something with a deadline and I find that the calm of 2am often brings on this enhanced productivity. I focus, there is no noise from my brain and I just do it.

But I can sit in front of a laptop in the day with no distractions and do virtually nothing because my brains whirring.

If someone I trust sits with me and engages a little for a tiny bit, it can help me move forwards. The process of ordering my thoughts to share with them can really help me make a bit of progress. But it's short lived.

Does anyone have suggestions for how to get over this? Coping strategies etc.

I have a few but I'm in the situation far too often. The also deprivation has other knock on impacts etc.

Oh and I wrote the above fluently without procrastinating. My mind had clarity

• A night shift job.
• Rubber ducking, where you talk through your task to a teddy bear or similar object as if it was another person.

Rubber ducking is an interesting idea.

I'd like to keep my current type of job. I used to be a software engineer but it's led to something else. I started working 20 years ago. I enjoy it other than going through phases of being very stuck. I used to deal with being a programmer by inducing those late night stages of hyperfocus in the day.

The trouble is, it's stressful and I'm not sure it's good for my health.

But night work isn't an option for my type of work by default and the modification I'm making isn't good for my health.

I share that because rubber ducklings seems to have come from software. And I wonder if this context resonates with others

Anyone else?

So I struggled with this for years. V deadline driven work.

In the end, age started to catch up, and sense. It got harder to work at night so often.

I also realised that concentrating in really long focused bursts has a massive cost afterwards - dopamine crash, and not being able to pick the pace back up for a couple of days.

Slight detour, I read a book called Smart But Scattered Guide To Success For Adults. It has an exec function quiz. My top exec function skills is sustained attention. Wierd as I have inattentive ADHD 🤣.

The way round the hyperfocus burnout is, I learned, to do things in short bursts.

I'd been using the Focus Mate website, really recommend it. They have 25m and 50m sessions. Then they introduced 75m sessions, which is my sweet spot. At the start you say what you are working on. Then you say how it went at the end. Lots of people screen share, lots of people work in IT using it. Been using it for yonks now.