I’m losing focus…. what do you do to get back on track?

That's what actually been happening lately why I haven't accomplished anything the past week. Just last night, I ended up watching "The Killing" on Netflix for 9 episodes straight since I couldn't focus on work.

I'm thinking a vacation and relax but I don't want to spend that money on that.

If I still don't finish what I have to finish this week, I might go on this vacation to relax and recharge.

Thanks for your input.

I've also done the marathon watching thing in the past. You can avoid getting caught up in that cycle by instead making an agreement with yourself.

Agreement with yourself:

I will work for 2 hours then I'll reward myself with an episode of my favorite show. Or break it down into smaller chunks if you can't handle 2 hours of work in a row, like 1 hour or 40 minutes; this will build up your mental toughness gradually.

Then when you watch that episode, work another two hours. This way you're not depriving yourself and you still get work done. I've read that even highly productive people only get on average 4 hours of "difficult/boring" work done per day.

The rest of their time is working on stuff that they enjoy or wasting time like you've been doing. The work hard then reward yourself system works well for me. You should give it a try.

I read your suggestion somewhere and trying this now. I set a timer to work for 30m then break for 10m.

When I started this startup... I could work for 12 hours with lunch/dinner as the only break. I could do this because I could see the results I'm expecting in terms on how my project should work.

Now my focus is how to make money... and it's hard. I think this is the part where I'm gonna get tested. I know I'm not gonna go down!

For me, it takes 30 minutes just to get into the zone for a work mindset, so I would never be able to do the 30 minute work then break for 10 minute thing; I wouldn't get much done in the day. I do a solid 2 hours then I take a 30 minute break and repeat again.

In a good day I can get 3 or 4 such sessions in, for a total of 6-8 hours of work. That might seem like a small amount for people reading this, but I'm talking about 6-8 hours of actual hard work like programming; not 6-8 hours of doing normal busy work like answering emails, running to the post office, etc.; I don't even factor that time in when I'm discussing what I do for the day. 6-8 hours of solid programming every day is very good in my opinion.

Once I launch my product I will have to transition from doing mainly programming to mainly dealing with customers, hiring, etc. and hopefully I'll be able to make that transition smoothly. When I program, I can turn music on in the background and just code in a zone-like state.

Oh, and before I forget, are you saying that you've launched your product and are now trying to monetize it? If so, do you have users? I think it's fairly easy to monetize a service once you have enough users. If you need help just let me know vaguely what it's about and I'll give you some tips. I'm working on my own startup so I'm no threat to compete against you.

Oh, and since I forgot if you wish to contact me, an email address you can reach me at is:

campionxc@hotmail.com

That way I can help you with ideas for monetization without you having to reveal too much on this site. Your choice either way; good luck.

I already launched my product and add features along the way. And I'm continuously working on various iterations and enhancements to improve traffic and user engagement. I currently have 20k+ registered users. And there's an average of 200 new signups per day.

I will send you an email with the link to my site. Maybe you can share ideas on how to monetize my users. All my users are mainly US/UK. It's a great traffic.

Sure, I'm very creative so I can probably give you some tips to improve your site, free of charge. I didn't receive an email though; just respond back to this thread when you've sent it and I'll check it out.

Just sent you the email now...

I have to figure out soon what to do with my project to make it profitable. I have a lot of users but not making what I expected. I need to figure out the right business model. This is where I'm stuck and losing focus.