Ryan Holiday

So after his torture, he's basically exiled.

He's thrown out of politics.

And so he lives in the country.

He writes beautifully of what his life was when he was not in the sort of hustle and bustle of things.

He would work on his farm and then he would change into his nicest clothes and he would spend literally hours, three to four hours a day conversing with the ancients.

When Cal Newport talks about deep work, he's talking about like extended periods of deep work, which is a beautiful, I think, even kind of sacred thing.

My schedule has been pretty busy because of the book launch.

So, you know, I was on the West Coast for a week and then I was on the East Coast for a week and then I had a bunch of stuff.

And then the latter half of this week is the first week I've gotten to go back into my routine.

Basically from 8.15 to 11.30, I was like just in with my ideas and my writing and the book that I'm working on now.

And that's like, that's my life.

That's what I love.

That's the thing that keeps me going is like that period.

I mean, it's hard work and it's exhausting and tiring and my brain hurts sometimes, but it's also deeply restorative and peaceful and stimulating.

People think this is something you can do while you're doing 20 other things, right?

They're multi.

Yeah.

And like, what is the job of a leader or a creative or basically insert profession that's not built around periods of that?

And you look at people's calendars and it's like, so you just have meetings all day?

Yeah.