Aug 25, 2023·edited Aug 25, 2023Liked by David Epstein
Terrific article.
I used to be a software engineer, for 25 years. Over the course of my career, not only did we have to deal with constant email interruptions, but towards the end, everything moved to open offices and we were expected to check Slack every couple of minutes, and people were always talking, constantly conversations going on around me. Which meant I spent my entire day saying, "Now where was I?" I wore a shooter's headset to try to block out the noise so I could concentrate but it only brought it down to a dull roar. In my last job, when they moved to an open office, I begged my boss to leave *some* place where I could go for quiet so I could actually concentrate but no, the theory was that having no barrier between the guy who's shouting across the room three feet away from you increases productivity. I had to work from home to get anything done but this was pre-COVID and I eventually got sacked for working from home.
I'm now a full-time painter, and my studio is a barn with no internet. I spend the mornings in the house where I have internet, not the studio, looking at other people's work, puttering, basically letting my head come up with a strategy for the part of the painting I have to work on for the day. And then I go to the studio and execute the strategy. And then get the hell out because I'm impetuous and I need to have thought out what I'm going to do next and tested it in my head a few times until I'm sure it's right. I consider all that puttering time, all that time away from the studio, to be *also* time that I'm painting, because getting ideas and testing them in my head is part of the process. It's what you do when you have no Undo button, when you're working in a medium without configuration management, where you can't go back to a previous version, when what you do has to be right. Having no internet where I actually paint means I have control over my concentration when it really counts. Working with my own rhythms, I've made enormous strides in the past few years, improved by leagues.
When you tell management what you need in order to be productive, they simply don't listen. They have theory. Theory is very much informed by assumptions developed around extroverts. Theory is lethal to concentration for people who need quiet and alone time to be productive.
This post reminds me of an example I tell my students each year in my electrical engineering classes where we talk about how a computer processor works. Every time you want to make a change in the program you’re running on the processor you need to store the current state of all the registers of the processor (known as the context) in memory before you jump. This process, called context switching, is a big problem in processor design because it is inefficient to do all this extra work to jump around to a different part of the code.
There are a lot of analogies comparing the human brain to a computer processor that don’t work, but this one sure does. The work done by Gloria and others demonstrates that our brain is like a single core processor. Unfortunately, this doesn’t bode well for us in our distracted age where we are endlessly tempted to switch contexts to check our email or reply to a text.
I’m sure you’ve engaged with Cal Newport on this stuff as well, but I’m really looking forward to his current work and upcoming book on his conception of “Slow Productivity” which helps to address some of these themes.
Great Q&A David, thank you! It sparked so many thoughts. I'm curious about what you said about proactively paying attention to your own rhythm during the day. It sounds like it's changed your morning routine. Has it led to any other realizations, understandings, or behavioral changes? Is writing first thing in the morning your writing routine now?
Also, I'm not sure if you've read Deep Work by Cal Newport (I saw he blurbed the book), but it touches on a lot of similar themes. If you haven't read it, I would recommend it! He says something similar about ignoring the news but with a twist I found funny: he wrote it could be a good conversation starter to just ask people, "So what's happening in the news these days?" Also, the analogy about the Little Mind reminded me about something Doris Kearns Goodwin talks about in Leadership in Turbulent Times. As she tells it, every president she has studied had some activity they would retreat into to recharge or escape. FDR, she says, was an avid stamp collector and would always rearrange his collection when he was stressed. And, more famously, Lincoln would go to the theater. He went more than 100 times in his 4 years as President!
Hey Matt, Cal lives near me and is a great guy! I actually haven't read Deep Work, but I've read some of his other writing, and Digital Minimalism actually led to me taking Twitter off my phone, which was great, so I'm a Cal fan. I have Deep Work and this will remind me to go and read it. Also, I'm definitely going to check out Leadership in Turbulent Times. I'm looking for more info like this, so REALLY appreciate this suggestion. ... My toddler just arrived home so I'm going to come back and answer the routine question later;)
Really appreciate this! And I realized I already have the book, having picked it up at Ryan Holiday's bookstore in Bastrop. I knew about Churchill and Einstein, but never heard that about Rod Stewart. (And, btw, I never mind being reminded of things I've heard...I kind of count on it, actually.)
Regarding changes I've made to my schedule or realizations: indeed I changed my morning routine, also moving exercise to the morning. That doesn't come to me naturally; I've tended to like exercising late rather than early, but now I'm on mornings. As far as work, I'm actually not doing much writing at all right now, but for my first work thing I'll do some reading not on my screen. So a book, or a magazine (typically NYRB or New Scientist), or a journal paper that I've printed out. I find that once I start jumping between tabs, I tend to keep jumping between tabs — or, as I mentioned, I struggle to transition out of email — so if I want some sustained reading, it's good to start with it. It also feels like a less frantic start, which I really like. A few other things I've noticed by paying attention to my rhythm: I was constantly putting too many things on my "to do" for the next day, so I would carry over the unfinished ones (and new ones that popped up during the day), and eventually I'd have a list so long I'd completely scrap it because it was impossible. I'm now making the to-do list much less ambitious, and I find it very helpful. A big challenge for me, particular in the sort of idea gathering phase, is deciding what thing to do at any given moment. Having a short list of concrete things is very helpful for that. But perhaps the single biggest thing is that I'm treating my day more like intervals, and taking little breaks (or switching to my "Little Mind") BEFORE I feel like my focus is crumbling. Previously, I was more apt to push until I was crumbling, and then the reset takes longer, and it's just more stressful. I've also started incorporating some practices that force me to slow down when I'm starting to feel frantic from task-switching (which is at times inevitable for me). The silliest one is that I'll stop and shave with a single-blade razor, because it really forces you to pay attention and slow down, or you'll hack your face up. I feel ridiculous saying that, but it's really working for me...kind of similar to that toothbrush post I did once. It just forces me to slow down and pay attention to one thing — and a thing that isn't cognitively difficult so I'm recharging. I've also taken to writing about a haiku a day. I've been interested in haiku for a long time, since I took an East Asian lit class in college as an elective, and I think it's particularly useful for slowing down. It's obviously easy to do one quickly, but it's conducive to putting a lot of thought into the words, and also it's an outward-senses focused form. Unlike many poetic forms that describe feelings, haiku is generally meant to describe a real moment, without embellishment, and most often an impression or momentary image of nature. So it tends to push the writer to look at or visualize a single thing and focus on it. I just enjoy it, and marvel at what some writers have done with the form, but I also find it practical for a little slow-down break. I think it's my version of Maya Angelou's crossword puzzles.
Okay so I'm 1/3 on giving you examples you've never heard of. I've had *much* worse batting averages in my time, so I'll take it. Your point about shorter to do lists resonates. Speaking of Ryan Holiday, your point makes me think of something Matthew McConaughey said once on his podcast: "I'd rather get 3 A's than 5 B's." The idea of doing less better isn't especially novel, but McConaughey's framing was memorable. I also like the theme of limiting technology (single blade razor, printed out reading, haikus). It seems like such a great way to channel your focus and mast-strap yourself to avoid distractions. I'm not sure if you still check the comments this long after a post, but if you do, do you have any favorite haiku poets whose work you would recommend checking out?
I do! Actually, checking the comments has become a bit of a break for me. As you can probably tell from my frequent typos, I feel free here to just think with my fingers and not be too careful. It's nice, because there's nowhere else I really do that. ...and I like that use of "mast-strap." Very original! ...Regarding haiku, the Shakespeare of Japan is Matsuo Basho, and his most famous work is The Narrow Road to Oku. I recommend this edition: https://www.amazon.com/Narrow-Road-Illustrated-Japanese-Classics/dp/4770020287
Every Japanese high school student will have read some of it. It's a travelogue full of haiku. Haiku used to be just the intro lines of a much longer form, and Basho is the one who basically decided it could be its own serious form. I love some of his, particularly one in there that starts with "The summer grasses..." In general, there's a so-called "big four" of haiku. Basho, Buson, Issa, and Shiki. They're all great, but I think I probably like Shiki the best. He brought haiku to international prominence, and focused on "shasei," or "sketching from life." A series of books that RH Blyth did on haiku had a big impact on a bunch of 20th century American writers. If you're interested in haiku generally, I'd probably recommend that version of Narrow Road to Oku (even just read the opening paragraph, which is stunning), and a beginner book with some compilation, like this: https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-Japanese-Haiku-Best-Loved/dp/480531687X ... it's silly how much I've read about haiku, given how straightforward it seems. But I think haiku is a "way" more than just a form. A way of seeing, thinking, and being. And when you are that way, you see and write a certain way. Anyway, I have plenty of recs if you get into it! ...By the way, the great Richard Wright only wrote haiku for the last years of his life, and many of them are amazing. A few hundred of them were compiled in a book. https://www.amazon.com/Haiku-Last-Poems-American-Icon/dp/1611453496
Wow I had no idea you were so well-versed in haiku that's amazing. I think I'll start with the first two links you mentioned and then move onwards. For a long time I've wanted to read more poetry (and maybe even write some just for fun), but I've been a little intimidated about where to start. Haiku seems as promising a place as any. Its structure makes it seem less daunting. I just finished Adam Alter's book and I think this would fit with what he said about structure being liberating when you're stuck. Though I'm also aware that it looks so easy that it seems ripe for a Dunning-Kruger Effect. Either way, should be fun. Thanks!
As far as mast-strapping, I took a class with Dan Gilbert in college and he told me the Odysseus analogy for the first time, so he deserves most of the credit. So it's not that original, but, hey, everything is a remix!
Great post and interview, thank you! I left freelancing ten years ago because I was tired of not having separation between work and not-work. Now I’m working remotely at two different part-time jobs and it’s destroying my attention — I find it almost impossible to focus on one thing for any length of time and it’s making me miserable.
Ugh, I'm sorry to hear that. I don't think there's a perfect answer to this issue, in the age of cobbling together jobs. I think the best thing for me, personally, has simply been having some little ritual that forces me to slow down when I'm really starting to get desperately overwhelmed. As silly as it sounds, one useful such ritual for me has been shaving with a single-blade razor. Again, it sounds ridiculous, but I'll do it in the middle of the day if needed, and it has to be done slowly and deliberately or else I'll hack my face up. It's almost embarrassing to share, but I find that it helps reset me a bit.
I once took pride in the fact that several friends have told me that I am the most productive person they know. I’m feeling the cost of those efforts now and trying to let go of that mindset.
Your anecdote about slowing down was my favorite part. My wife had something akin to a therapy session yesterday, and one thing she remembers best was the idea that the less we do, the healthier we are. Obviously this doesn't apply in all situations, for it definitely felt epiphanic (is this a word) for me. I feel this acutely running a small business, jumping from topic to topic constantly throughout my day.
There were a lot of great nuggets in this article. Festina lente may be my favorite. I also have never heard of that Tolstoy piece! I'm midway through War and Peace (which I'm loving), so I purchased the calendar.
A funny note that isn't a knock on you is came from reading this section:
"I don’t at all advocate being an uninformed citizen, but when I scroll headlines, they’re all so appealing! I feel like I need to know what’s in most of the articles. But in viewing my attentional tank as limited, I’m increasingly asking myself: “If I take the time to read this rather than the paper or book on my desk that I proactively selected, will it have been worth it? Do I really need to know what’s in this article?” And the answer is often probably not."
Your article, even though I loved it, was a reactive read and took the place of the book I brought to work with me today. Well, in a way I chose to subscribe, but my email has become littered with Substacks, most of which highly interest me. So now I'm running into this issue that there is too much high quality reading material, so I feel like I am getting further and further away from slowing down. Anyways, thanks for listening to my diatribe.
I appreciate you and your recommendations as always.
Hey Paul, congrats on your W&P journey! Which translation are you reading? I sampled several, and Anthony Briggs ended up as my favorite.
In any case, your point about this post in your inbox is well taken. On the one hand, as you note, you have done some degree of proactive vetting for this content. On the other hand, even stuff that fits that rubric can get overwhelming. I feel the same way, and I just content myself to miss some of the posts I subscribe to, and not feel bad about it. Given that newsletter posts tend not to take very long to read and aren't usually difficult reading, I save some of them for those "Little Mind" breaks. Just a thought...but as long as you're getting interesting stuff coming in, then don't worry about missing my or anyone else's content. The point is to get some good stuff, and you can never get all the good stuff. That's how I'm framing it to myself, anyway.
I didn't consider trialing different translators. I'm "reading" (listening) to the translation by Louise and Aylmer Maude. I did try a couple different narrators but chose the one narrated by Thandiwe Newton.
This is such a good topic. But reading on through the comments, you made me laugh, as you mentioned using shaving with a single blade as part of your slow down! I have been doing this exact same thing for my breaks between work surges. My daily shave can now occur anytime from 9am-11pm! Maybe needs more attention to this.
I also use topic switches between deep thinking coding to lighter ones like some documentation or diagnose an issue trolling through data logs, or even email. Or if I can those little to do list items like calling for prescription refills, scheduling medical appointments for example.
Email and Slack messages, I now do at specific intentional parts of my day, as like you state, can become that repeated distraction that prevents any real productivity.
My main break of the day I save for my run. Depending on day and workload, this occurs anytime from midday to 6pm. That lasts about an hour. I refer to it as my "lunch" hour.
Thanks again lots of interesting stuff here to think about!
Hey David, really enjoyed this (as always) I've also just received Gloria's book so she owes you commission for sure 😄 this article resonated with me early for a very stupid reason, your stitches in the head reference comes a couple of weeks after I woke up in hospital after a (self inflicted alcohol related) accident which required stitches above my eye and left a nasty scar and honestly I'm so ashamed and have had a rough couple of weeks trying to come to terms with it mentally. I do realise I was very fortunate not to do any serious damage but it's affected me quite badly. Anyway, that's a bit self indulgent but in a way even this comment helps just a little with something Gloria mentioned in your Q & A - the idea of writing something down to get it off your chest. Similar I thought to what Brad Stulberg mentioned in an earlier Q & A about 'cognitive outsourcing' (currently reading his book and actually just finished Good To Go on your recommendation which I absolutely loved so thanks for those recs) BTW I hope you don't feel pressure to produce your next book, honestly I love your two books and am the biggest fan of your writing but I'd much rather you took your time and only produced your next book whenever it feels right for you. I'm excited to hear that you're on a pathway to another book but I also understand the colossal effort involved and just sensed from your comments that you might be stressing about this, these posts are great so take your time. Thanks, William.
I ran a citation statement search on Scite — which I think is a more reliable check than Wikipedia — before noting the effect. It turned up more recent citations, with better samples than the overview paper noted in Wikipedia; they tended to support the existence of the effect, albeit with caveats (like motivational status).
Hi David: thanks for your post and for the time you spent exploring this topic. I liked the personal anecdotes and examples you shared. Truth be told, sometimes we need constraints or an big life event to slow us down enough to notice the difference it can make. I like the idea of holding off on email until later in the morning. I think with the alarming rise in ADD among youth and adults makes this book especially relevant for educators and parents. Needs more research for sure. Thanks - Eoin
Eoin, thanks so much for this comment. I wholeheartedly agree with your point about how constraints can be useful in this context. That's exactly the idea I'm interested in.
We often frame our productivity in terms of work, at jobs.
The above interviews and author do indicate tht the psychological crippling is vast, global, affecting sleep, dreams, inspiration, creativity.
David's introduction of inemuri, sleeping while presentappears to reflect the fact that the concept of multitasking, which has been proven by research to be instead Task-switching, induces an internal craving.
When deferral occurs, it reduces the very ability to fully use the associative power of our brain.
I will here submit that procrastination is not a causal phenomenon, but an effect, of that social inducement to accomplish exterior, social goals, rther than interior, identity-driven pursuits.
Identity can overaccrue within our minds, composed of learned, modeled, early acculturated abdication of self, for other.
The famed aphorism of Rabbi Hillel," If I am not for myself, who is for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And, If not now, when?" allows us the recognition that the balance between sociality and individuality was breached or violated for beyond the couple thousand years ago when he addr3essed it, and surely extends beyond the time, perhaps over 9,000 years that we have attempted to balance civic or social duties with necessary developmental contemplation.
I think of the Ayllu of the ancient Andino peoples, who carefully balanced seasonal work for the community projects necessary to enjoyable polity, GIVING us time, before the massive bureaucracies that deny individual uniqueness here and there gobble us up as identical domestics interchangeable, de-individuated.
Whether texting, the 150 or so emails i have to sift daily, or clock time itself, we've submitted to offensive development into "daylight savings" eating at our natural impulse to awaken with insights and illuminations, quashed by coerced immediacy of duties to others.
One supposes that the Islamic predawn Muezzin call, is an institutionalized distortion of the natural impulse. The more ancient monkish claquing to awakening to silence the ruminatory mind, was a bit more functional in dispersing those desperate thoughts that Carroll embodied when writing of innocent and observant Alice, as the White Rabbit dementedly rushed by, always late.
Ah, well, a culture accrues through the most coercively demanding, desperate modeling, capturing and in fact enslaving us to a false existential threat signal - for that's what we self-signal, the strange, illusory hue and cry of that initial bureaucratic subordination of self, YOURS or MINE.
Our deepest most basic Aloha being granted only momentary sense of pity, we rush, forever late
Per the aspect of the article regarding how people only have so much ability each day to pay attention, I can confirm this from a neuroscience perspective. I am a person who has suffered many TBIs and in the process of becoming better, our ability to pay attention and focus or do anything requiring thought each day was explained to me in the following way. Our brains are like bank accounts. If everyone has $50 in their brain bank account at the beginning of each day, everything someone does costs a little money. For example, getting out of bed and taking a shower might cost a normal, non-brain injured person .50$. It will cost the brain injured person .75$. Anyway, the point is, anyone can overspend their daily limit, even non-brain injured people. Brain injury sufferers just have to be more careful because the consequences are greater.
Christopher, I'm sorry to hear you suffered many TBIs, but really appreciate how thoughtful you are about this. This is an excellent analogy; it will stick in my mind, and I'll definitely share it if the opportunity arises. Thank you.
Sameer, I agree that's a hugely important point, and actually a major thesis of Hari's book, which Gloria Mark mentioned. If you're interested in the sort of polar opposite arguments, Hari's book advocates for complete overhaul of tech, while Nir Eyal's Indistractable focuses squarely on techniques for individuals.
Terrific article.
I used to be a software engineer, for 25 years. Over the course of my career, not only did we have to deal with constant email interruptions, but towards the end, everything moved to open offices and we were expected to check Slack every couple of minutes, and people were always talking, constantly conversations going on around me. Which meant I spent my entire day saying, "Now where was I?" I wore a shooter's headset to try to block out the noise so I could concentrate but it only brought it down to a dull roar. In my last job, when they moved to an open office, I begged my boss to leave *some* place where I could go for quiet so I could actually concentrate but no, the theory was that having no barrier between the guy who's shouting across the room three feet away from you increases productivity. I had to work from home to get anything done but this was pre-COVID and I eventually got sacked for working from home.
I'm now a full-time painter, and my studio is a barn with no internet. I spend the mornings in the house where I have internet, not the studio, looking at other people's work, puttering, basically letting my head come up with a strategy for the part of the painting I have to work on for the day. And then I go to the studio and execute the strategy. And then get the hell out because I'm impetuous and I need to have thought out what I'm going to do next and tested it in my head a few times until I'm sure it's right. I consider all that puttering time, all that time away from the studio, to be *also* time that I'm painting, because getting ideas and testing them in my head is part of the process. It's what you do when you have no Undo button, when you're working in a medium without configuration management, where you can't go back to a previous version, when what you do has to be right. Having no internet where I actually paint means I have control over my concentration when it really counts. Working with my own rhythms, I've made enormous strides in the past few years, improved by leagues.
When you tell management what you need in order to be productive, they simply don't listen. They have theory. Theory is very much informed by assumptions developed around extroverts. Theory is lethal to concentration for people who need quiet and alone time to be productive.
This post reminds me of an example I tell my students each year in my electrical engineering classes where we talk about how a computer processor works. Every time you want to make a change in the program you’re running on the processor you need to store the current state of all the registers of the processor (known as the context) in memory before you jump. This process, called context switching, is a big problem in processor design because it is inefficient to do all this extra work to jump around to a different part of the code.
There are a lot of analogies comparing the human brain to a computer processor that don’t work, but this one sure does. The work done by Gloria and others demonstrates that our brain is like a single core processor. Unfortunately, this doesn’t bode well for us in our distracted age where we are endlessly tempted to switch contexts to check our email or reply to a text.
I’m sure you’ve engaged with Cal Newport on this stuff as well, but I’m really looking forward to his current work and upcoming book on his conception of “Slow Productivity” which helps to address some of these themes.
Great Q&A David, thank you! It sparked so many thoughts. I'm curious about what you said about proactively paying attention to your own rhythm during the day. It sounds like it's changed your morning routine. Has it led to any other realizations, understandings, or behavioral changes? Is writing first thing in the morning your writing routine now?
Also, I'm not sure if you've read Deep Work by Cal Newport (I saw he blurbed the book), but it touches on a lot of similar themes. If you haven't read it, I would recommend it! He says something similar about ignoring the news but with a twist I found funny: he wrote it could be a good conversation starter to just ask people, "So what's happening in the news these days?" Also, the analogy about the Little Mind reminded me about something Doris Kearns Goodwin talks about in Leadership in Turbulent Times. As she tells it, every president she has studied had some activity they would retreat into to recharge or escape. FDR, she says, was an avid stamp collector and would always rearrange his collection when he was stressed. And, more famously, Lincoln would go to the theater. He went more than 100 times in his 4 years as President!
Hey Matt, Cal lives near me and is a great guy! I actually haven't read Deep Work, but I've read some of his other writing, and Digital Minimalism actually led to me taking Twitter off my phone, which was great, so I'm a Cal fan. I have Deep Work and this will remind me to go and read it. Also, I'm definitely going to check out Leadership in Turbulent Times. I'm looking for more info like this, so REALLY appreciate this suggestion. ... My toddler just arrived home so I'm going to come back and answer the routine question later;)
How cool! Was the Q&A you did with him in person?
I'm so glad that was a helpful suggestion! For LiTT it might save you a bit of time by starting with pages 46-48 and 81. I love stories like this, and I might indulge and share a few more in case they're helpful. Apologies if you already know them, but here goes... first, apparently Sir Rod Stewart is such a big fan of model trains that he books an extra hotel room when he tours in order to bring his set with him (see: 4000 Weeks, p. 159-160). Next, Churchill had a similar relationship with painting ( https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1983/09/23/churchill-escaping-through-art/5870adc0-50ac-4418-8595-779024236d8e/ - he even wrote a book called Painting as a Pastime ) and finally Einstein with the violin ( https://makingmusicmag.com/the-process-einstein-used-to-stimulate-creativity-and-why-it-worked/#:~:text=Einstein%20did%20this%20by%20playing,but%20to%20stimulate%20his%20creativity. -- also fun Einstein quote: "Keep in mind that besides the eight hours of work, each day also has eight hours for fooling around, and then there's also Sunday.") Let me know if you want any more help coming up with some others!
Really appreciate this! And I realized I already have the book, having picked it up at Ryan Holiday's bookstore in Bastrop. I knew about Churchill and Einstein, but never heard that about Rod Stewart. (And, btw, I never mind being reminded of things I've heard...I kind of count on it, actually.)
Regarding changes I've made to my schedule or realizations: indeed I changed my morning routine, also moving exercise to the morning. That doesn't come to me naturally; I've tended to like exercising late rather than early, but now I'm on mornings. As far as work, I'm actually not doing much writing at all right now, but for my first work thing I'll do some reading not on my screen. So a book, or a magazine (typically NYRB or New Scientist), or a journal paper that I've printed out. I find that once I start jumping between tabs, I tend to keep jumping between tabs — or, as I mentioned, I struggle to transition out of email — so if I want some sustained reading, it's good to start with it. It also feels like a less frantic start, which I really like. A few other things I've noticed by paying attention to my rhythm: I was constantly putting too many things on my "to do" for the next day, so I would carry over the unfinished ones (and new ones that popped up during the day), and eventually I'd have a list so long I'd completely scrap it because it was impossible. I'm now making the to-do list much less ambitious, and I find it very helpful. A big challenge for me, particular in the sort of idea gathering phase, is deciding what thing to do at any given moment. Having a short list of concrete things is very helpful for that. But perhaps the single biggest thing is that I'm treating my day more like intervals, and taking little breaks (or switching to my "Little Mind") BEFORE I feel like my focus is crumbling. Previously, I was more apt to push until I was crumbling, and then the reset takes longer, and it's just more stressful. I've also started incorporating some practices that force me to slow down when I'm starting to feel frantic from task-switching (which is at times inevitable for me). The silliest one is that I'll stop and shave with a single-blade razor, because it really forces you to pay attention and slow down, or you'll hack your face up. I feel ridiculous saying that, but it's really working for me...kind of similar to that toothbrush post I did once. It just forces me to slow down and pay attention to one thing — and a thing that isn't cognitively difficult so I'm recharging. I've also taken to writing about a haiku a day. I've been interested in haiku for a long time, since I took an East Asian lit class in college as an elective, and I think it's particularly useful for slowing down. It's obviously easy to do one quickly, but it's conducive to putting a lot of thought into the words, and also it's an outward-senses focused form. Unlike many poetic forms that describe feelings, haiku is generally meant to describe a real moment, without embellishment, and most often an impression or momentary image of nature. So it tends to push the writer to look at or visualize a single thing and focus on it. I just enjoy it, and marvel at what some writers have done with the form, but I also find it practical for a little slow-down break. I think it's my version of Maya Angelou's crossword puzzles.
Okay so I'm 1/3 on giving you examples you've never heard of. I've had *much* worse batting averages in my time, so I'll take it. Your point about shorter to do lists resonates. Speaking of Ryan Holiday, your point makes me think of something Matthew McConaughey said once on his podcast: "I'd rather get 3 A's than 5 B's." The idea of doing less better isn't especially novel, but McConaughey's framing was memorable. I also like the theme of limiting technology (single blade razor, printed out reading, haikus). It seems like such a great way to channel your focus and mast-strap yourself to avoid distractions. I'm not sure if you still check the comments this long after a post, but if you do, do you have any favorite haiku poets whose work you would recommend checking out?
I do! Actually, checking the comments has become a bit of a break for me. As you can probably tell from my frequent typos, I feel free here to just think with my fingers and not be too careful. It's nice, because there's nowhere else I really do that. ...and I like that use of "mast-strap." Very original! ...Regarding haiku, the Shakespeare of Japan is Matsuo Basho, and his most famous work is The Narrow Road to Oku. I recommend this edition: https://www.amazon.com/Narrow-Road-Illustrated-Japanese-Classics/dp/4770020287
Every Japanese high school student will have read some of it. It's a travelogue full of haiku. Haiku used to be just the intro lines of a much longer form, and Basho is the one who basically decided it could be its own serious form. I love some of his, particularly one in there that starts with "The summer grasses..." In general, there's a so-called "big four" of haiku. Basho, Buson, Issa, and Shiki. They're all great, but I think I probably like Shiki the best. He brought haiku to international prominence, and focused on "shasei," or "sketching from life." A series of books that RH Blyth did on haiku had a big impact on a bunch of 20th century American writers. If you're interested in haiku generally, I'd probably recommend that version of Narrow Road to Oku (even just read the opening paragraph, which is stunning), and a beginner book with some compilation, like this: https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-Japanese-Haiku-Best-Loved/dp/480531687X ... it's silly how much I've read about haiku, given how straightforward it seems. But I think haiku is a "way" more than just a form. A way of seeing, thinking, and being. And when you are that way, you see and write a certain way. Anyway, I have plenty of recs if you get into it! ...By the way, the great Richard Wright only wrote haiku for the last years of his life, and many of them are amazing. A few hundred of them were compiled in a book. https://www.amazon.com/Haiku-Last-Poems-American-Icon/dp/1611453496
Wow I had no idea you were so well-versed in haiku that's amazing. I think I'll start with the first two links you mentioned and then move onwards. For a long time I've wanted to read more poetry (and maybe even write some just for fun), but I've been a little intimidated about where to start. Haiku seems as promising a place as any. Its structure makes it seem less daunting. I just finished Adam Alter's book and I think this would fit with what he said about structure being liberating when you're stuck. Though I'm also aware that it looks so easy that it seems ripe for a Dunning-Kruger Effect. Either way, should be fun. Thanks!
As far as mast-strapping, I took a class with Dan Gilbert in college and he told me the Odysseus analogy for the first time, so he deserves most of the credit. So it's not that original, but, hey, everything is a remix!
Great post and interview, thank you! I left freelancing ten years ago because I was tired of not having separation between work and not-work. Now I’m working remotely at two different part-time jobs and it’s destroying my attention — I find it almost impossible to focus on one thing for any length of time and it’s making me miserable.
Ugh, I'm sorry to hear that. I don't think there's a perfect answer to this issue, in the age of cobbling together jobs. I think the best thing for me, personally, has simply been having some little ritual that forces me to slow down when I'm really starting to get desperately overwhelmed. As silly as it sounds, one useful such ritual for me has been shaving with a single-blade razor. Again, it sounds ridiculous, but I'll do it in the middle of the day if needed, and it has to be done slowly and deliberately or else I'll hack my face up. It's almost embarrassing to share, but I find that it helps reset me a bit.
Great point, I have been trying similar small changes after taking a “pace of life” quiz from the Recommendo newsletter (http://www.richardwiseman.com/quirkology/pace.html).
I once took pride in the fact that several friends have told me that I am the most productive person they know. I’m feeling the cost of those efforts now and trying to let go of that mindset.
Interesting! Thank you for sharing this quiz...I'm about to take it right now.
Excellent interview. I always learn something reading your thoughts. I cannot wait for your next book.
So kind of you Phil! Feeling kind of lost in the early stage of the next book...but I guess that's normal for me.
Your anecdote about slowing down was my favorite part. My wife had something akin to a therapy session yesterday, and one thing she remembers best was the idea that the less we do, the healthier we are. Obviously this doesn't apply in all situations, for it definitely felt epiphanic (is this a word) for me. I feel this acutely running a small business, jumping from topic to topic constantly throughout my day.
There were a lot of great nuggets in this article. Festina lente may be my favorite. I also have never heard of that Tolstoy piece! I'm midway through War and Peace (which I'm loving), so I purchased the calendar.
A funny note that isn't a knock on you is came from reading this section:
"I don’t at all advocate being an uninformed citizen, but when I scroll headlines, they’re all so appealing! I feel like I need to know what’s in most of the articles. But in viewing my attentional tank as limited, I’m increasingly asking myself: “If I take the time to read this rather than the paper or book on my desk that I proactively selected, will it have been worth it? Do I really need to know what’s in this article?” And the answer is often probably not."
Your article, even though I loved it, was a reactive read and took the place of the book I brought to work with me today. Well, in a way I chose to subscribe, but my email has become littered with Substacks, most of which highly interest me. So now I'm running into this issue that there is too much high quality reading material, so I feel like I am getting further and further away from slowing down. Anyways, thanks for listening to my diatribe.
I appreciate you and your recommendations as always.
Hey Paul, congrats on your W&P journey! Which translation are you reading? I sampled several, and Anthony Briggs ended up as my favorite.
In any case, your point about this post in your inbox is well taken. On the one hand, as you note, you have done some degree of proactive vetting for this content. On the other hand, even stuff that fits that rubric can get overwhelming. I feel the same way, and I just content myself to miss some of the posts I subscribe to, and not feel bad about it. Given that newsletter posts tend not to take very long to read and aren't usually difficult reading, I save some of them for those "Little Mind" breaks. Just a thought...but as long as you're getting interesting stuff coming in, then don't worry about missing my or anyone else's content. The point is to get some good stuff, and you can never get all the good stuff. That's how I'm framing it to myself, anyway.
I didn't consider trialing different translators. I'm "reading" (listening) to the translation by Louise and Aylmer Maude. I did try a couple different narrators but chose the one narrated by Thandiwe Newton.
I am reading Gloria Mark's book right now. I'm only on Chapter 1, so I'm excited to read more!
Happy reading, Victoria! And would love to hear any insights you want to share if you think of it as you go through the book.
This is such a good topic. But reading on through the comments, you made me laugh, as you mentioned using shaving with a single blade as part of your slow down! I have been doing this exact same thing for my breaks between work surges. My daily shave can now occur anytime from 9am-11pm! Maybe needs more attention to this.
I also use topic switches between deep thinking coding to lighter ones like some documentation or diagnose an issue trolling through data logs, or even email. Or if I can those little to do list items like calling for prescription refills, scheduling medical appointments for example.
Email and Slack messages, I now do at specific intentional parts of my day, as like you state, can become that repeated distraction that prevents any real productivity.
My main break of the day I save for my run. Depending on day and workload, this occurs anytime from midday to 6pm. That lasts about an hour. I refer to it as my "lunch" hour.
Thanks again lots of interesting stuff here to think about!
Hey David, really enjoyed this (as always) I've also just received Gloria's book so she owes you commission for sure 😄 this article resonated with me early for a very stupid reason, your stitches in the head reference comes a couple of weeks after I woke up in hospital after a (self inflicted alcohol related) accident which required stitches above my eye and left a nasty scar and honestly I'm so ashamed and have had a rough couple of weeks trying to come to terms with it mentally. I do realise I was very fortunate not to do any serious damage but it's affected me quite badly. Anyway, that's a bit self indulgent but in a way even this comment helps just a little with something Gloria mentioned in your Q & A - the idea of writing something down to get it off your chest. Similar I thought to what Brad Stulberg mentioned in an earlier Q & A about 'cognitive outsourcing' (currently reading his book and actually just finished Good To Go on your recommendation which I absolutely loved so thanks for those recs) BTW I hope you don't feel pressure to produce your next book, honestly I love your two books and am the biggest fan of your writing but I'd much rather you took your time and only produced your next book whenever it feels right for you. I'm excited to hear that you're on a pathway to another book but I also understand the colossal effort involved and just sensed from your comments that you might be stressing about this, these posts are great so take your time. Thanks, William.
Zeigarnik effect doesn’t exist, according to Wikipedia.
I ran a citation statement search on Scite — which I think is a more reliable check than Wikipedia — before noting the effect. It turned up more recent citations, with better samples than the overview paper noted in Wikipedia; they tended to support the existence of the effect, albeit with caveats (like motivational status).
Interesting interview. Thanks David.
Thank you for reading!
Fascinating! I now want to read Gloria’s book!
So glad you enjoyed. And I found it to be a pretty quick read.
Hi David: thanks for your post and for the time you spent exploring this topic. I liked the personal anecdotes and examples you shared. Truth be told, sometimes we need constraints or an big life event to slow us down enough to notice the difference it can make. I like the idea of holding off on email until later in the morning. I think with the alarming rise in ADD among youth and adults makes this book especially relevant for educators and parents. Needs more research for sure. Thanks - Eoin
Eoin, thanks so much for this comment. I wholeheartedly agree with your point about how constraints can be useful in this context. That's exactly the idea I'm interested in.
We often frame our productivity in terms of work, at jobs.
The above interviews and author do indicate tht the psychological crippling is vast, global, affecting sleep, dreams, inspiration, creativity.
David's introduction of inemuri, sleeping while presentappears to reflect the fact that the concept of multitasking, which has been proven by research to be instead Task-switching, induces an internal craving.
When deferral occurs, it reduces the very ability to fully use the associative power of our brain.
I will here submit that procrastination is not a causal phenomenon, but an effect, of that social inducement to accomplish exterior, social goals, rther than interior, identity-driven pursuits.
Identity can overaccrue within our minds, composed of learned, modeled, early acculturated abdication of self, for other.
The famed aphorism of Rabbi Hillel," If I am not for myself, who is for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And, If not now, when?" allows us the recognition that the balance between sociality and individuality was breached or violated for beyond the couple thousand years ago when he addr3essed it, and surely extends beyond the time, perhaps over 9,000 years that we have attempted to balance civic or social duties with necessary developmental contemplation.
I think of the Ayllu of the ancient Andino peoples, who carefully balanced seasonal work for the community projects necessary to enjoyable polity, GIVING us time, before the massive bureaucracies that deny individual uniqueness here and there gobble us up as identical domestics interchangeable, de-individuated.
Whether texting, the 150 or so emails i have to sift daily, or clock time itself, we've submitted to offensive development into "daylight savings" eating at our natural impulse to awaken with insights and illuminations, quashed by coerced immediacy of duties to others.
One supposes that the Islamic predawn Muezzin call, is an institutionalized distortion of the natural impulse. The more ancient monkish claquing to awakening to silence the ruminatory mind, was a bit more functional in dispersing those desperate thoughts that Carroll embodied when writing of innocent and observant Alice, as the White Rabbit dementedly rushed by, always late.
Ah, well, a culture accrues through the most coercively demanding, desperate modeling, capturing and in fact enslaving us to a false existential threat signal - for that's what we self-signal, the strange, illusory hue and cry of that initial bureaucratic subordination of self, YOURS or MINE.
Our deepest most basic Aloha being granted only momentary sense of pity, we rush, forever late
Per the aspect of the article regarding how people only have so much ability each day to pay attention, I can confirm this from a neuroscience perspective. I am a person who has suffered many TBIs and in the process of becoming better, our ability to pay attention and focus or do anything requiring thought each day was explained to me in the following way. Our brains are like bank accounts. If everyone has $50 in their brain bank account at the beginning of each day, everything someone does costs a little money. For example, getting out of bed and taking a shower might cost a normal, non-brain injured person .50$. It will cost the brain injured person .75$. Anyway, the point is, anyone can overspend their daily limit, even non-brain injured people. Brain injury sufferers just have to be more careful because the consequences are greater.
Christopher, I'm sorry to hear you suffered many TBIs, but really appreciate how thoughtful you are about this. This is an excellent analogy; it will stick in my mind, and I'll definitely share it if the opportunity arises. Thank you.
Great post. Thanks! I wonder how the tech industry could do more to help here? Seems like that would help.
Sameer, I agree that's a hugely important point, and actually a major thesis of Hari's book, which Gloria Mark mentioned. If you're interested in the sort of polar opposite arguments, Hari's book advocates for complete overhaul of tech, while Nir Eyal's Indistractable focuses squarely on techniques for individuals.