I used to work in a swanky 'open-plan' office.

It felt quite nice when you walked through the door. You felt like you'd arrived, you know. Nice sofas. Modular curtains to allow you to flex your hipster coworking space so you're never too far from the bean to cup coffee machine with ultra dark roast beans (I'm more of a medium roast guy, so I'd end up bringing my Aeropress).

But, within an hour, after I'd been jumped on half a dozen times by the team, I remembered why I f***ing hate working in offices.

So I ended up shutting myself in a cubicle for most of the day, just to get some sh** done.

Don't get me wrong. I'm an introvert, but I'm not antisocial.

I enjoy interacting with people on my own terms. But I don't like being jumped on. In fact, in my first big boy job, this got so bad, the leadership team had to give full training on 'desk hijacking' where you'd just slide into someone's desk space and start asking them for help with stuff.

So, you can imagine my relief when I started working from home.

Although, working from home, also requires a whole new type of discipline.

Pretty soon the top 1% of creators will be the ones that have found a way to master deep work.

Because with deep work comes deeper content, deeper expertise, and deeper outcomes for their audiences and clients.

There's also a physical reason for this. Cue Huberman:

Your learning happens while you're unconscious. Which means guarding a focus block can literally re-wire your brain.

But it's becoming harder, and AI is making this worse.

Anyone who reads me knows I have a fascination with AI. And in the right hands it's life changing. In the wrong hands it just produces more crappy work.

Here's a good take:

I'm so relieved now that AI can work more autonomously, because I don't want to have to micromanage a chat all the time.

Can you imagine if Claude was an employee?

Every 5 seconds - Can you check this? Can you give me your approval on this? I need you to answer these questions before I proceed.

I'm now having to be even more deliberate with the way that I use AI so it doesn't just become another shallow work task.

Here're my tips:

Every moment of every day there's someone or something trying to distract you from the deep work you should be doing to create the life you want.

This is a bad distraction.

Likewise, there are good distractions that help us recharge and refocus.

The problem with working alone - especially if you work from home - is your ability to distract yourself.

But the good news is that discipline is a muscle that can be trained.

But, you don't need to feel disciplined first, then act. It's the reverse. Huberman again:

Your nervous system watches what you do. You act, and then your brain updates the story about who you are. So "I'm just not a disciplined person" is a story you change by doing the thing - not by waiting until you feel like a disciplined person.

Here's what discipline looks like:

This week, I made an effort not to look at my inbox as much.

I'm not talking about going from every 2-3 minutes to 2-3 times a day.

I'm talking about 2-3 times per week.

I successfully managed to stay out of my e-mail for 48 hours. And guess what set on fire?

Nothing.

But what I did manage to do in that time was:

But, it took a while for me to work up to resisting inbox temptation for that length of time.

Before you do any of this, you need to decide what your most impactful activities are. For me, it's ideation, editing, brand deal negotiation and campaign strategy.

It's impossible to become disciplined if your ability to concentrate is shot.

This is why I've put this as ground zero.

A few questions that'll help gauge your concentration.

If the answer to any one of these is no, you need a reset.

Go on a walk and leave your phone at home. Block apps on your phone (more on this in a bit). Set a timer and sit in silence for 5 mins, or download a meditation app like 'The Way' even if you don't give a sh** about mindfulness.

I can't stress how important getting rid of that twitch to distract yourself is.

Everyone's obsessed with morning routines. But I much prefer evening routines.

What's better? Using the first part of your day when you're most energised to decide what to do, or using that time to do stuff?

Here's something cool:

The Hemingway technique. End the work day with something left to write, then reapply your mind to it first thing in the morning. As Josh Waitzkin (Chess prodigy and super-learner) says, you should be "comfortable stopping with a sense of direction, even when you're mid-sentence."

I don't always leave work unfinished, but I do do an end of day review, and block my deep work for the next day.

I only tend to do this when I'm overwhelmed, or my brain fills a bit 'dirty'.

I do a brain dump of everything that's on my mind. Often as a checklist. To clean the pipes.

From back in my bartending days. There was nothing like pouring a fresh pint after the lines had been cleaned. It was so much clearer.

You don't want your mind to be a cloudy pint (unless you're into that).

I find that when I do this, I'm much less likely to get hijacked by a thought like “Must remember to myself my expenses for the EV charging costs” and the instantly find that I'm doing that instead of what I planned to do.

This is split in 4:

You don't need to go to the 'Meet the Parents' extent of a cowboy hat on the door when you're slathering your partner in cream, but you get the gist.

This part is simple:

All your prior work builds up to this.

Get into a routine of consistently resisting the urge to be 'always available' and you'll start to feel good about ignoring things.

All because your deep work blocks will become so rewarding, and so impactful to your work that you'll protect them in every way necessary.

One of the biggest threats to your life (yes, life) is wasting your brainpower on shallow work that turns you into a busy fool.

But with a bit of discipline (lol) you can train your nervous system to drop into focused blocks of work more easily.

Start by staring out the window a little more often.

Until next time.

Adam

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