Actual focus, where I am 100% on the problem with all my remaining grey matter? 3-4h. That doesn’t mean I am doing nothing the other time - I’m talking to people, thinking about stuff, setting stuff up and so on. But if I do more than 3, 4 h, quality suffers, I suffer, and my sleep schedule suffers.

I’ve read that humans can only sustain maximum focus about an hour. I used to think “I can focus for longer than that!”, but I think a more correct interpretation is that “after more than an hour, you start to see diminishing returns on your effort.”

Upon more careful reflection, that sounds about right. I do engineering work that involves deep focus and complex mental manipulation, and I can say that you really can’t do that for more than 1-2 hours at a time without a break. Try to force it longer than that, and you won’t be able to go back for a second round of that in the same day.

The reason why students seem to be able to do it is because of the staggered classes and the variation in complexity for their course load and, you guessed it, taking short breaks in their sessions. Common advice for engineering students is to pair their engineering courses with lower-stress liberal arts courses or courses that use different parts of the brain in a given semester so they don’t burn out, and to rest between classes and study sessions.

And lastly, as an ADHD adult, I’ll offer this insight on the nature of motivation: everyone’s threshold for how much motivation they need to perform a task with sustained focus is different. Sometimes, you just don’t have it in you, because you’ve used the energy on other things. Willpower is not some magical force that you can limitlessly tap into to achieve the impossible; it is very much a finite resource. So if you’re struggling to bring yourself to do more towards a specific goal, consider where you can shave off some energy elsewhere. Or, perhaps after thinking about it, you realize you are already putting in exactly the amount of energy you are willing to. In that case, there’s no need to feel guilty, because you’re already doing what you can and want to.

Outside of work I can probably deep focus for 1 to 2 hours per day. Working a full-time job and taking care of a home is simply too exhausting for me to focus longer than that.

I do want to caution that hobbies and passions shouldn’t make you feel rundown. It’s great to have a goal, but make sure you’re taking care of yourself and having fun along the way.

3 to 4 hours of focus on anything, every single day is so unthinkable to me I can’t even.

Even when I take my ADHD meds I don’t get those kind of numbers! Jesus. Maybe don’t feel like your existence needs to be justified by constant, sustained effort that can be measured? Sounds really stressful.

You don’t get points for hobbying the hardest. IMO, you might benefit from focusing on enjoying a hobby and stop making it about efficiency.

“Feeling guilty” about not being the best at a hobby is a bit of a “please consider therapy” flag.

I’m lucky to get 4 hrs a day of focus time. I know that for others it can be a lot more. However, ADHD hyperfocus is a thing and may be what these Internet people are referring to

The people who say they work 60+hr weeks for long periods of time are inefficient and are lying to themselves.

I can happily deep focus almost indefinitely, including putting off eating but only if I’m really interested in doing something. I can also doggedly persevere with something I feel like I ought to do but become progressively more depressed doing it. I’m starting to think I may have something like ADHD but need to look into it a bit more.

My advice to you is to listen to yourself. If you’re reaching a limit of how much time you want to spend on something take a break from it. You’ll get more done that way and your learning will probably be more effective. Or it may even be worth reassessing whether you really want to do it at all. It’s fine (and very important IMHO) to refine & update your goals to ones that suit you better. You might be tempted to beat yourself up about being a ‘quitter’ but it will be better.

Sail forth and find your dopamine :)

Those internet people are lying. It’s the Internet, after all.

It’s better for you to try to be a whole person, who has some social time and gets some exercise and maybe cleans up their living space once in awhile.

If you feel guilty about a hobby, it’s not a hobby

It has become a chore.

Depends. I have ADHD. Unmedicated a “reasonable” amount of time could be 20 minutes or 10 hours. Medicated it could range from 2-8 hours depending on my engagement and motivation to stay on task.

Aggregate these data as you will.

3–4 hours of focus time, and another 3–4 hours of passive time where the brain gets to work on its own. Usually this is what a full time job is, so don’t expect to do more after that. (Mundane purely “mechanical” jobs add a bit of variables, let’s disregard those for now. Work is work and it takes its toll)

Those who say they’re active for 8 hours consistently don’t know how to measure time, or they’re super rare outliers, or outright liars. It’s just not sustainable.

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Maximum 20 minutes

When learning languages there comes a point where immersion is much more useful than concentrated learning.

While traveling to or living in China for a while might not be an option, are there activities or things you can do in Chinese with native speakers which is not just about learning a language.

It’ll be more fun and require less focus.

Or get a Chinese friend / boyfriend / girlfriend! 😀

When I was an engineering student, we spent more time on solving problems than just reading the books. The process of solving the problems helped learn the concepts. Didn’t feel like deep focus learning from that perspective.