How Do You Cope When Your Mind Keeps Jumping Between Tasks Every Five Seconds?

michaelharrel

I don’t know what’s going on with me, but the moment I try to focus on something, my brain jumps to ten other ideas like a browser with a hundred tabs left open. I’ll start writing something, then suddenly remember a message I should answer, then I get an idea about reorganizing my workspace, then I’m halfway through cleaning something even though I was working two minutes ago. It’s exhausting and honestly a little embarrassing. I don’t want to force myself into some rigid focus prison, but I need a way to stay on one thing long enough to finish it.

davidmurphy

Your “hundred-tabs brain” description hits way too close to home — mine felt exactly like that for years. I tried fighting it with hard discipline, which just made me frustrated. Somewhere in that mess I skimmed through a wisey review that talked about softer focus windows instead of strict tunnel vision, and the idea made sense in a way other advice never did. Once I let myself use short, calm focus bursts, the tab-jumping finally slowed and finishing things became doable again.