Brad Stulberg

Really, digital devices in particular, these are the attention vampires.

They just suck away our attention.

And when we want to do meaningful, focused work, we need to remove these things.

Willpower is never going to be enough.

I know you've had prior guests who have pointed this out, that the way that these devices are designed, it's just way too strong, and willpower is not enough.

So what we have to do is we have to say, all right,

Right.

When I sit down to write, that's important for the next hour and a half.

I want to be really focused.

So that means that my phone is going to be charging in the basement.

It's not even going to be on the same floor as me.

And I'm going to turn off my email client.

I'm not going to minimize it.

So I see the little mail icon pop up and then have to resist checking it.

I'm actually going to hit the X and quit the program for an hour and a half.

So I think that we need to think about designing our environment to enable us to focus.

And then focus to me is just the absence of distraction.

And again, it's simple, but simple does not mean easy, especially in today's world.

The initial resistance it takes to get started with something, especially when you're novice and you're not too good, and facing that initial resistance and expecting that the first couple weeks or the first month of a commitment to excellence in anything is

is going to feel pretty hard and challenging and at times uncomfortable.