Dopamine Pressure
Notice moments when “dopamine pressure” has built up in your mind—when you have gone without distraction for a while, and so you are craving…
Articles.
Ideas on productivity, focus, and living with greater intention.
How to Create a “Distraction-Free” Focus Ritual
Create a customized "distraction-free ritual" to deploy when you want to focus deeply on important tasks. Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes, 45s.
My favorite distractions blocker is still Freedom
In my opinion, Freedom is still the best distractions blocker.Estimated Reading Time: 1 minute, 13s.
How to do a stimulation fast
By lowering the “stimulation level” of your mind, focusing on both everyday and aversive tasks becomes easier. To get there, try doing a “stimulation…
To focus deeper, keep a Distractions List
As you focus, keep a “distractions list” by your side—and on it, capture everything that tries to derail your attention. You may be surprised…
Try theming your days to feel less overwhelmed
Try theming your days if you have many different (or competing) priorities that you’re juggling—or if you want to introduce more structure into your…
The four types of distractions that derail your focus
Broadly speaking, two types of distractions and interruptions derail our productivity: those we can’t control and those we can. Some of these distractions/interruptions are…
Check out the updated Focus modes feature on iOS
“Focus” is a feature on Apple devices that lets you mold your digital environment to stay on-task. I highly recommend customizing your own focus…
Want to become more productive? Stop multitasking.
Multitasking makes you less productive, and you should create strategies to resist the urge to multitask, like minimizing distractions and checking your email on…
My 6 guiding principles
You probably have guiding principles, whether you realize it or not. Capturing them can help you make better decisions. If you’re curious, mine are…
Your ideas aren’t that unique
Your ideas are worth less than you think—it’s all about how you execute upon them. Take the example of the S-logo, below. Estimated Reading…
Which of your projects need space, and which need focus?
Divide your project list (if you keep one) by which of those projects require focus, space, or a combination of the two. This is…
Setting goals is largely overrated
Traditional goals are kind of overrated: they don’t have a natural end point, and sometimes not much even changes when we accomplish them. It’s far…
The Two-Day Phone Challenge
This week, try going three days without charging your phone. Or, if you can’t stomach that idea, try two. Estimated Reading Time:44s.
How to solve complex problems (by not focusing on them)
The Zeigarnik effect can do something stunning when we scatter our attention and let our mind wander.
How learning to knit helped my productivity
Knitting has quickly become one of my favorite hobbies—and not only because it lets me create things and relax. I also knit for productivity…
4 Strategies for Overcoming Distraction
Humans are hardwired for distraction. Here are some ways to gain back control.
7 strategies to keep your phone from taking over your life
Some strategies I found useful to prevent phones from taking over our time and attention.
Your smartphone is chopping your life into tiny, less meaningful pieces
Our attention is naturally drawn to anything that is pleasurable, threatening, and novel—and our smartphone provides us with a steady stream of all three.…
This is the most important thing you can keep in mind as you work
We alternate between two types of work: collaborative work, and focus work. Keep in mind which type of task you're working on—and whether you…
Do distraction blockers really work? Research suggests you may not need them
If you have high levels of self-control, a distraction blocker may cause stress and lead you to take fewer breaks. Be mindful of this…
10 tactics to run more productive, focused meetings
Meetings take too much time—the best way to counter this is to shrink your meeting lengths, and focus those conversations. The 10 strategies below…
Tilting
Over-investing in one area of your life—I call this tilting—is often worth the costs, especially when you do so deliberately. Estimated Reading Time: 3…
Feel overwhelmed by work? Try giving your days a theme
Try theming your days if you have trouble juggling competing priorities or want to introduce more structure to your work. You can do this…