Time to accept that hard work needs to be difficult

Today I read a great summary of how Nir Eyal achieves productivity by powering through distractions and not trying to minimize the effort required to do hard work. I found the perspective both refreshing and compelling, especially coming from Nir, whose previous book “Hooked” is precisely about the way that businesses can keep consumers trapped in cycles of engagement (aka “distractions”.) Maybe he’s doing penance, eh!

My principle takeaway was to define scheduled work blocks during which we push ourselves to eliminate all distractions and just do the thing that we’re supposed to do. Nir cited his own use of this strategy with regards to writing. He says that every day he sits down and writes for 2 hours regardless of anything else, and he does not allow himself to get distracted or procrastinate during this time. He even resists the urge to look up information in Google, forcing himself to wait at least 10 minutes, during which the urge may have subsided as he pushed on and may have gotten into material which made the search unnecessary. The same can apply to me, and perhaps even more given the nature of my material, much less scientific and non-fiction than Nir’s.

Here’s a glimpse at the second version of my personal schedule.