Thread by @then_there_was

By the way, Deep Work by Cal Newport is fantastic.

I’m halfway finished with it.

It’s not that it’s radically interesting. A lot of what Cal says is obvious.

But he gave me a very special gift—a way of thinking about distractions.

That you should schedule time for distractions, but they should stay separate from leisure.

So often, I’ll mindlessly check my phone at the end of the day, but that doesn’t really give me pleasure.

I’m just doing it because I’ve engrained the habit so deeply it’s become automatic.

Cal’s suggestion that you should avoid distraction even during times of leisure resonated with me.

What really put it together was scheduling a time for leisure.

I would constantly feel like I had to do more work, but I’d also feel like I needed to take a break.

As a consequence, I never got much deep work done. And I never had great leisure time.

My attention was fractured, pulled, and distracted.

After planning for leisure and being more deliberate with what I like, I think my life has improved.

I don’t feel torn in all directions.

I feel like everything I do has more purpose to it.

I do the things I want to do, when I want to do them.

I’m not a puppet of distractions as much anymore.

I work hard. I play hard.

And I feel no guilt for doing either.

I can feel the calls for distraction slowly fading.

It’s a kind of mindfulness that’s permeating my life.