Not So Focused (YET)

Five years ago today (according to Facebook) I shared a link about someone deleting their Facebook account. Ironically today - I'm reading the book Deep Work. It's far too easy in today's age to be distracted so much so that we begin to look forward to it. It's become so innate that it's like second nature, a habit even. I am very much so guilty of this - reaching for my phone to swipe left, right, up down- check the time, hear a chime only to set it back down and not read any messages. What was the point of  doing any of that? Unfortunately the author deleted that post and I don't have the know how of pulling up such things on the interwebs -- however listening to this book made me realize I am not capitalizing on the times I've set aside to do my "deep work". I don't even think I'm allowed to call it that. I'm consistently bombarded with the unspoken stress and anxiety of other people around me - example my mother, banging on pots and pans while cooking up a storm in the kitchen. One might argue that it's her house and she oyster bills but I live here too no? I believe we all crave solidarity at some point in our lives, yet we've accepted the constant pings and dings of our phones, with emails, tweets, messages and all other types of notifications as ok distractions. I've been experimenting with the way in which I work - often putting my phone on silent in the middle of the day or in the late evenings. We've grown so accustomed to being able to instantly reach someone and seeing that they did indeed get our notifications and thinking well this thing I'm dealing with is urgent!!! If anything is urgent we should call the proper number for an emergency 🚨. Otherwise, it can wait. While I'm not yet finished with listening to the audio book, I feel there are some key points I can draw from it. 

• The "deliberate time" needs to be much more structured and consistent - uninterrupted even. 
• Has to be more than an hour. 
• Ideally in the wee hours of the morning ( can't happen tomorrow cause I'm typing and it's already 11:30 😱) 

While take always are great from books I think learning how to implement them in our lives consistently is even more so difficult. I know they already say to do backwards building ... so I guess I'll start there.