I recently tried out two focus techniques, after journaling them down.:
Monoidealism (more specifically count to 10) +4/10
At specific times, like getting off the computer and getting out of bed, this was a really useful technique. The major weakness is that the thought to count to 10 has to appear to you while you are already in that flow state of sleeping, or social media, or whatever.
Gamification: +6/10
Using gamification (more specifically the website Habitica) was really helpful to me in being able to give me easy-to-visualize indicators of my success. I’d say it was a +8 this week, but it was not as helpful two other times when I tried it (with Habitica again, Guild of the ROSE skilltree, and Project Skilltree) which I would only give a +2/10. The reason behind this differential was that I had recently gotten in a habit of making a to-do list every week of all the assignments and other things I needed to do that week. So having that habit pile up on top of it was what I would guess, in hindsight, made me more responsive. It’s important to make sure that your gamification is connected to your most important life tasks, and not just extra self-improvement related tidbits. The boring stuff counts too! I would boost it up back to an 8 with this in mind, but I’m not exactly so sure of my judgement, so it could be a random thing.
These ones have stuck with me from before the journaling session, but they have helped me a lot.
Weekly To-Do List: +8/10
This is where I make a To-Do list of what I need to do for the week in a spreadsheet. This really helped me deal with some tough classes, and made my tasks much more manageable. The important part is remembering to delete items and add new ones at the beginning of every week. This one also makes gamification more effective, as I previously stated. That synergy, combined with helping me deal with some tough classes like Calculus II and Biology with Labs, is why I give it such high praise.
Collaboration with Others / Double-bodying: +8/10
This one has been a necessity for me. I use Focusmate as my go-to, since it is easier on demand, but study groups and other applications may work as well. This one isn’t new for me, as it has become a permanent part of my routine.
From what I’ve seen, Sapiens has been widely criticized by scholars for not providing any new material and being made up of speculation. Examples for this are listed on Wikipedia’s page for the book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapiens:_A_Brief_History_of_Humankind#Scholarly_reception There’s also one example that explains how it gets the process of speciation wrong, which is something I have taken an undergraduate class on, and seems accurate to me: https://ecodevoevo.blogspot.com/2026/04/sapiens-page-5-crummy-one.html