Make a focus vacuum

I’m posting this for my future self, to remember how peaceful and productive it is to block the inputs, and make a vacuum to expand my output.

–Derek Sivers, “Offline 23 Hours a Day“

Limiting distractions is a solved problem, and I need to remember that.

There’s 1Blocker, there’s Screen Time, there’s Bloom. There’s Do Not Disturb.

There’s putting distractions in the other room. There’s turning things off.

There’s throwing your phone into the river and burrowing into the soft mud of the shore.

But then there’s the sense of urgency that things are happening.

JOSH
I need information. I need to know what's happening in the world -- I have no idea what's happening in the world!

DONNA
I bought you the paper.

JOSH
I read it! Preparations are on the way for the fair -- I'm briefed. Organizers say it's going to be the best one yet.

–The West Wing, "20 Hours in America, Part II"

And blocking out information to make space to make things doesn’t have to be tuning out the world completely.

Because there’s a circle of influence where I can do something about what’s inside, but not what’s outside.

If there’s less outside to see, there’s more focus on what I can do something about.