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5 ways to stop getting distracted

This is part 2... You can read part 1 here

My wife and I just finished Deep Work by Cal Newport and we're starting to integrate the 4 rules into our lives/schedules. Below is what's working best for us so far.


⚡️ 5 ways to stop getting so dang distracted

  1. Schedule the day in 30 min blocks
    - This is all about seeing what you have left of the day and prioritizing
    - This is NOT about sticking rigidly to the schedule... I probably change it 3 or 4 times a day and keep going
     
  2. Schedule two or three 90 min blocks of Deep Work
    - Phone's in another other room
    - Do not disturb mode on the computer
    - WiFi off
     
  3. Email/social media/iPhone time is only allowed during scheduled breaks 🙌
    - I can still be active online, I'm just a lot less distracted while I'm trying to get work done
     
  4. Shutdown sequence
    - At the end of the day (around 5 or 6pm), we do the following:
       - Take one last look at our email and calendar to make sure there's nothing important creeping up
       - Go through the list of things we accomplished that day
       - Write down our most important tasks for the next day
       - Shut our computers
       - Say "System Shutdown" in a weird artificial intelligence voice 😜
       - And that's it... no more sneaking in one more email, tweet, etc... now we just eat dinner, read, watch a movie, go on a walk... it's remarkably satisfying
     
  5. No phone in bed
    - The phone stays on the dresser at night
    - This prevents those hour+ mindless Instagram binges that leave you feeling like a damn zombie

I highly suggest trying some of these. If you've started reading Deep Work, you'll know there's much more to it than I can bullet point in an email, but I think this is a great place to start.

 

Go make something move!

Austin Saylor