Advice........

Hey, I know this unusual for /prog/ but I need some advice.

When I am programming, the slightest distraction causes me to completely lose focus on whatever I was working on. I don't mean someone stopping by my room to ask me a question or something so trivial. I live with 4 other people in the house and the walls are fairly thin, allowing me to hear every conversation being had in the house. I didn't used to have this problem but now I can't focus on any of my work. I tried putting headphones on, but I don't really like programming while listening to music. I was thinking about earplugs but I feel like someone on /prog/ has done serious programming in a much louder environment. Any tips for tuning out background noise?

Well... you could try and see if you've got ADHD, if so Ritalin may be a decent route. In my experience it doesn't really murder your soul as everyone says, it just makes concentration easier. You may have a problem focusing too much on your work while under its influence. The first few times I took it I ended up completely drained, it was painful.

If the above doesn't apply to you, or don't wish or can't take those measures, try with white/brownian noise. If you are using a Unix OS, try with SoX. You can use it to generate tuned noise continuously or dump a recording into a file. I've found it makes concentration easier.

Unfortunately I haven't found yet a way to cope with my concentration problems naturally myself, so I can't offer much more advice. Some people claim that setting up a reward system helps them beat ``procrastination'', but that's a bit long term, and I haven't come up yet with one which doesn't tire me, distracts me much, or some such.

The pomodoro technique I find to be actually distracting, so I dropped it early.