Update on this after more than a year:

(28-02-2017, 05:44 AM)venam Wrote: Monotasking, force myself to one window per workspace

This is probably the thing that helped the most. All and all just limiting the number of things I'm doing at once. Making my tasks more lightweight.

(04-04-2018, 04:20 AM)z3bra Wrote: The way I do multitasking is with tmux usually. I keep one "workspace" per task, and split the window when needed.

I now do exactly that: One session per task and put in the background/detach everything else.

(28-02-2017, 05:44 AM)venam Wrote: Limiting distraction in the environment surrounding your machine.

My desk is still tidy as usual, no change. I think it's only personal preference.

(28-02-2017, 05:44 AM)venam Wrote: Non distracting ambient music

I've found that this doesn't keep me focused at work, but it does when at home with my personal projects.

(28-02-2017, 05:44 AM)venam Wrote: Using the `at` for time management of tasks

I've used this for a while but stopped using it. I had a shell script that was notifying me I should switch task. This was more annoying than anything else. What I now do is switch when I can't focus anymore or simply take a break or note the things that popped in my head. What I initially wanted to do with the `at` was to create a sort of Pomodoro but this didn't cut it for me.

(28-02-2017, 05:44 AM)venam Wrote: Added a gap at the left and right of the window to allow to view the background color, which is a shade of blue (#5686AA)
xflux to avoid the bad effect of the blue shade at night and sleep well

This is sort of true. My wallpaper is now a map of the world so it has the blue color for the water. The thing is that it's bright, keeps me awake and I don't pay attention to the background either. I'm not sure about xflux effect, I found it annoying when staying late at work and suddenly having it turn into an orangish color, it made me tired...

(28-02-2017, 05:44 AM)venam Wrote: Moving text to the top of the page as I read (we read in F shape focusing on the top)

I've done that with webpages mostly. Firefox has that reader-view mode that is super sweet when reading long articles that have annoying ads or content on the sides. Apart from this I keep my windows in the middle of the screen.

(28-02-2017, 05:44 AM)venam Wrote: Doing my most strenuous tasks between 9am-1pm as it's when we have the most focus

This didn't turn out true for me. I guess this varies a lot. It's a mood thing, like when you get obsessed with a topic and feel the excitement to work on it.

Overall, I changed my mind about one thing, I thought digital attention was about order and forcing myself to enter a state of mind but it wasn't that way. As obvious as it sounds you can't force someone to pay attention to something they don't want to pay attention to. I've seen persons with messy desks and computers with icons laying everywhere that could focus really well and do magic stuffs. I guess there are generalities (the bell curve kind of stats) but it also varies a lot. The steps in the original post are more like guidelines you can test.