We live in a world that constantly pulls at our attention - notifications, obligations, noise (hell - you’re reading this very newsletter when you could be doing a number of other things ((appreciate you!)) - yet quietly asks us to perform at our highest level inside that chaos.

This week’s issue will show you how to reclaim focus by training your mind through endurance, protecting it from digital distraction, and a great read on reframing your relationship with time, so you can move with more clarity, intention, and control in your everyday life.

Let’s have a day -

This week you get a high-leverage action that takes seconds to implement but can give back hours of time. Are you interested?

If you’ve ever tried to curb your screen time, you’ve probably come to this realization yourself - Your phone isn’t just interrupting your day, it’s quietly training your brain to never feel at rest. Every buzz is a reminder that your attention belongs everywhere except the life you’re actively trying to build.

A vibration here. A banner there. A harmless-looking preview that says, “Just checking this won’t hurt.” But every notification - every buzz, flash, or ding - pulls you out of whatever you were doing and invites your brain into a different world. And once you step through that door, getting back to deep focus is harder than you think.

Most of us don’t consciously realize that notifications aren’t just interruptions. They’re gateways. The real cost isn’t the three seconds it takes to read a notification, it’s the 5, 10, or 20 minutes that follow while your attention splinters across apps, messages, and feeds.

Sound familiar?

Email notifications during work hours are one of the biggest offenders. They create a state of constant partial attention, where your brain never fully commits to the task in front of you because it’s waiting for the next incoming signal. You may feel “busy,” but you’re rarely doing your best work.

Research on attention consistently shows that it takes several minutes to fully re-enter a state of deep focus after an interruption. Author and focus expert Cal Newport has written extensively about this in Deep Work, explaining that high-quality output requires long, uninterrupted stretches of concentration. Notifications fracture those stretches before they ever get a chance to form.

The result? More screen time. Less meaningful progress. A constant sense that your day slipped away without anything substantial to show for it.

No email notifications - No social apps - No “just in case” alerts.

Check messages and email on your terms, at designated times, instead of reacting all day long.

Do this for one week. Pay attention to how often you instinctively reach for your phone, and how much calmer your mind feels when nothing is pulling at it.

I did this a long time ago with email. It completely changed my relationship with responding and busy work. Next logical step is to take the plunge with all other notifications too. Let’s do it together -

Most people think endurance sports build lungs and legs. They do, but the deeper adaptation happens in the mind.

Endurance training forces three rare conditions that modern life avoids.

First, extended solitude. Long runs, rides, or rows place you alone with your thoughts for 30, 60, sometimes 120+ minutes. There’s no quick hit of novelty. You’re left to confront boredom, self-talk, and mental drift—and learn how to regulate them.

Second, goal-oriented discomfort. Endurance work teaches you to continue despite your brain’s repeated attempts to shut things down early. The body is often capable of more than the mind initially allows. Each session becomes practice in negotiating with internal resistance rather than obeying it.

Third, forced digital detox. Whether outdoors or indoors with only audio, endurance training strips away screens. Attention narrows. Sensation replaces stimulation. This is increasingly rare—and increasingly valuable.

These aren’t side effects, they’re the training.

What the Experts Say

Sports scientist and author Alex Hutchinson explains in Endure that endurance performance is largely governed by the brain’s perception of effort, not raw physical limits. Learning to stay calm and purposeful inside discomfort is a skill that improves with exposure.

Renowned endurance coach Matt Fitzgerald echoes this in his writing on mental toughness, emphasizing that athletes don’t eliminate discomfort, they learn to reinterpret it. Discomfort becomes information, not a stop signal.

Elite ultrarunner Kilian Jornet often speaks about endurance as “a conversation with yourself.” The longer the effort, the more honest that conversation becomes.

This is why endurance athletes often report carryover benefits far beyond sport: improved patience, emotional regulation, and decision-making under stress.

This Week’s Action

Try a 30-minute, screen-free discomfort block once this week.

Choose one:

Rules:

You’re not training your body this week. You’re training your ability to stay present, purposeful, and calm when your brain would rather quit. That skill compounds everywhere.

Four Thousand Weeks - a book that will completely change the way you conceptualize time, and even deeper, how you chase the never ending tail of productivity.

The book starts with a blunt truth - if you live to 80, you get roughly 4,000 weeks. Not days. Not years. Weeks. From that finite lens, Burkeman dismantles the modern obsession with productivity, optimization, and inbox zero. This isn’t another book about doing more, it’s about accepting that you can’t do everything, and learning how that acceptance can actually set you free.

Rather than offering hacks or systems, Burkeman reframes time as something fundamentally uncontrollable. The problem, he argues, isn’t poor time management, it’s our refusal to face our limits.

Why Why You Should Read It
Most productivity advice promises control: more output, better systems, fewer loose ends. Burkeman shows why that promise is a lie. The harder we try to master time, the more anxious and overwhelmed we become.

This is a foundationally important read because it gives permission to stop chasing the illusion of someday “being on top of things.” Instead, it invites you to choose what actually matters, knowing that every yes is also a no. For anyone feeling perpetually behind, stretched thin, or quietly burned out, this book offers a completely different perspective on digging your way out.

High-Impact Quotes

One Action to Take This Week
Make a deliberate subtraction.

Choose one commitment, project, or obligation you’ve been carrying out of guilt, inertia, or fear, and consciously let it go this week. Don’t optimize it. Don’t renegotiate it. Remove it.

Then use that reclaimed time for something meaningful now, not “someday.”

You don’t need more time. You need fewer things pretending they deserve it.