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How many hours of deep work/deep focus a day is doable and sustainable? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I'm constantly feeling guilty about "not doing enough" when it comes to my hobby of learning Chinese. I have been averaging around 3-4hrs every day (I often do 25-minute pomodoro sessions to ensure full focus) for these last 6 months, balancing it with a full-time job, working out and trying to be social. I have no co-dependents and my job is sometimes quite chill which makes this doable. Either way, I still feel guilty of not being able to "obsess" over it every day by studying 8hrs as, apparently, some internet people claim they do. Even while balancing it with other stuff. Or you know, just looking at students studying engineering/law/medical school and also saying they spend 8-10hrs a day studying. Like, I didn't even spend a fraction of this time studying by myself when I went to uni.

In the end, how many hours of deep focus a day is reasonable? Are the people saying they study 8hrs a day just lying? Or is a lot of unproductive time counted into these 8hrs? Like yes, they sit for 8hrs, but every 10 minute they check their phone for 10 minutes and then resume studying?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

it's the perspective of a NORP

Huh, do ADHD people count as NORPs? Or is that more of a mindset thing?

My naivete aside, it's true that the way I phrased my statement ignores people with ADHD who can experience hyper focus on an activity they're interested in, or people experiencing mania. I've certainly experienced the former, but like you said, it's not a solution but more of a trade-off with its own set of problems.

I guess I should have phrased it more like "even if you have limitless willpower, it doesn't break physics": even if you aren't neurotypical and can sustain willpower for unusual amounts of time, no matter how much motivation you have there is a limited learning capacity you have and a finite amount of time in a day, and you have to pick what you spend them on.

It's a bit tricky to convey that nuance succinctly, so thanks for pointing that out stranger. :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

:)
I love lemmy. Imagine this conversation on reddit. I'm not envisioning any smiles.