How do you stayed focused on a task when the task involves some type of waiting?

For example, I have a really hard time staying focused at work. The problem for me is, our software can be really really really slow. While I’m waiting for Outlook to load an email, or our internal tooling to populate data, I find my mind is wandering. Often, I’ll start on another task or pick up my phone and just completely forget about the first thing I started.

At the end of the day, I have to figure out why I have 8 half written emails open in the background of my PC.

How do you stay on track when your tasks require patience?

  • BirdEnjoyer@kbin.social
    0·
    6 months ago

    Orna has been good for that. Its a GPS RPG that’s just interesting enough to keep me playing, but not quite “just one more” levels of interesting.

    I can do a different type of dungeon run based on how much time I need to kill but it doesn’t make me so enthralled that I lose myself.

    The periodic resets help me remember the passage of time, too- run one quick menu dungeon for a reset notification in an hour, etc.

    Its what grounds me.

    Can you perhaps find a puzzle game with a sliding scale of duration, that helps you focus, but is too boring to keep you playing all day?

    Maybe easy sudoku or match 3s? A shorter format on Pokemon Showdown? (1v1 or 2v2)

    IDK if you’re allowed to play games at work, but maybe finding something like that could help at other times?

    I just know if i don’t keep my mind busy, it wanders bad. Or I get sleepy.