[Caleb (OP)]

I am the most distractible person alive, I think. Noises distract me, and so I like white noise when I work and when I sleep.

And one thing that has consistently bothered me (well, for at least 30 years) is hair impacting the outside of my ears, the inside of my nostrils, etc. Pretty much the setting event for me for getting a haircut is when my hair interferes with my concentration, and so I get it cut maybe once every six months and then I trim it back the rest of the time. (But now I have an electric razor and maybe I don't have to deal with this issue as often.)

But are others as distracted by this as I am? And if so, what are their (your) solutions to this problem?

Any insights would be very, very gratefully received!

Yours,

Caleb

[CliffordK]

Oh, white noise generators.  I can't stand those, although I have been considering having a serving of frog legs, or perhaps crickets before bedtime. 

As far as hair, like clothing, I think most people habituate to it rather quickly.  But, it is easy for it to be somewhat of a distraction such as hair twirling.  If you have hair on your neck, shoulders, or back where you've never had it before, it might take some time to habituate, but it still should be possible.  Unfortunately, when something is on your mind, it is hard to forget about it or ignore it.  Did you say whether you are male or female?  For men, there are many haircut styles that would keep the hair off of the ears.  For women, consider choosing a hair style using pins, clips, scrunchies, rubber bands, etc to manage your hair. 

Nose hairs?  I've never thought about that.  For caucasian men, when growing a beard for the first time, there is a point where everything becomes itchy-scratchy.  Usually the feeling subsides after a few weeks.  Those of African descent may have additional issues with curly hair.

Anyway, if you've been cutting, clipping, or pulling your nose hairs, I'd encourage just trying to ignore it for a few weeks or months. 

A deviated septum may also be related to nasal sensitivity, but I don't think I'd encourage surgery except in extreme cases.

Anyway, like a beard, often ignoring something like irritation from one's hair, and it should go away.  Perhaps try to avoid playing with the hair.

[evan_au]

Visit your friendly local shaver shop. They would be delighted to show you a variety of hair-trimming devices, some of which have attachments specifically designed for ears and noses.

[Don_1]

It is rather odd that as we age, the hair on our bonce seems to slip down to parts where hair never grew or at least never gave cause for concern in our younger days.

I do find that the occasional stray hair can tickle my ear and there is little quite as unsightly as a forest emerging from one's snout.

Pluck it!

No, no, I haven't made a spelling error there, nor tried to cover up an expletive. I mean as I write. Pluck it. Its far better than cutting it. The problem goes away for that much longer. I do find displaced hair growth a tad annoying at times, but not exactly distracting.

But I have come to the conclusion that these hairs do serve a purpose. As we age, we become grumpy and these annoying hairs provide us with something else to gripe about.

Isn't mother nature wonderful! She thinks of everything, right down to our apparent love of finding things to moan about.

[Caleb (OP)]

All great observations! Time goes on and makes us perhaps grumpier, maybe not. But I am the most distractable person alive, I think. And now that I have razored the hair around my ears away, I do feel a different and deeper silence.

There is a terrific book that I have used from time to time -- "How to work the competition into the ground" by John T. Malloy, and he shows how we can systematically reduce disctractors. Those periods of time where I do concentrate for extended periods of time, I appreciate, but not enough, I think. I remember as a twelve year old working at my father's office on a sunday and saying "I will never write another report again!" And pretty much that's all I do now, evaluating people and writing reports, and it is not as bad as I recall it being. We grow used to a lot of things, I guess.

Yours,

Caleb  (who has also found a good way to index reports and other compilatoins of material using Dragon Naturally speaking, through a simple tabulating process, etc. Let me know if I should have a video describing it -- but I do hate bucling down on reports and I have to do it...)