How do you concentrate?

[jetsam]

Listening to metal at low volume has never helped me concentrate.

[Dragonbite]

Everybody has a different body rythm of when they are fresh and able to concentrate, and when they are in a lull.

I find the quality/quantity of sleep effects me performance significantly. One day may not matter, but a week of 4-6 hours of sleep each night takes it toll.

That and too much coffee/soda actually does not help me while water does. Too much coffee/soda decreases focus as eventually there will be a lull or crash (albeit a small one).

Another method is to give yourself milestones that are not too far apart. Whenever you find yourself slipping try and remind yourself "Just finish this part, and can take a break". Then when you get to that point, take a break! Get up! Walk! Unplug for like 15 minutes.

Headphones should not be worn more than 45 minutes at a time. The constant "noise" is not supposed to be good for concentration. Depending on the music, from speakers should not be so bad. I usually end up with a few hours of music before it gets to be a bit much and I turn it off for a while. Also, I use Pandora so I have a number of stations I go back-and-forth between as fits my mood (sometimes dance or jazz, sometimes Metal or "goth", sometimes Celtic or country, sometimes nothing).

Oh, and another piece of advice.. don't be reading forums posts or listening to people posting know-it-all advice on a forum when they should be working on their own project and is having trouble concentrating themselves...

[Dragonbite]

Forgot (I realized I forgot it as I was finishing up the previous post).

Do not multi-task. They have studied it and found it to be counter-productive, and more stressful than single-focusing.

[jetsam]

Also, never ever even think about going to the off topic thread.