One of the best habits I’ve developed…

Is being able to ignore the outside world when I’m in a groove. 🙉

This includes people.

And it sounds kind of harsh, so let me explain: 

What I mean is that when I’m really in the zone…

Writing a new sales letter or trying to finish a project…👨‍💻

I force myself to ignore anything non-essential.🧘‍♂

This includes emails and texts from friends… messages on social media… responding to posts I’m tagged in… Slack notifications… Skype dings… etc. 

Of course, doing all of this is easier said than done…😑

Because personally, I can get notification anxiety when I know there’s an unread message I haven’t responded to.

And, whenever that happens…

A part of me feels this compulsive urge to view the notification and reply immediately…

Otherwise I must be a bad person.

It’s kind of weird, but I’m willing to bet a lot of you reading this can relate.

And, the point is…

Whenever I’m starting to get into a groove…

It’s not a smooth transition.

I have to fight through the guilt and anxiety of not instantly responding to stimuli…

And at first, I’ll backtrack frequently.

But the beautiful thing is…

Once I do fight through the guilt, anxiety, and shame…

And I get into a routine where I’m spending more time doing deep work than playing notification whack-a-mole…

My productivity goes up by 10x. 

Plus, what I’ve also found…

Is that in reality, very few of those messages are actually urgent.

Sure, it probably annoys some people that I don’t respond to them for several days (or at all)…

But ultimately, their lives go on, my life goes on, and it’s all fine.

So, I’m just sharing all this in case you suffer from notification anxiety too.

If that’s you…

I’d really encourage you to try putting aside some time this week…

Where you close Facebook, Skype, Slack, and whatever else…

Put your phone on silent (and face down)…

And dive into some deep work for a few hours.

I think you’ll be amazed by the results.

– SPG

P.S. One more little “hack” that’s related to all this:

I always keep my phone on silent…

I haven’t had it on vibrate or had my ringer on in years.

It shocks me that not everyone does this.

Your attention is such a precious commodity…

Yet every time your phone rings, vibrates, buzzes, or chirps…

It’s robbing you of your attention.

And normally for a reason that’s far from urgent.

Think about it.

P.P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.