The curse of the wonderful devices

After sending my kids to school this morning, I got engrossed reading the latest AI debate and forgot about buying groceries for dinner tonight. I walked right past the supermarket as I stared down on my phone. By the time I realized my mistake, I had to walk five minutes back to the supermarket.

And after buying the groceries, I got distracted by Gemini. I was asking it how to stir fry pork ribs after cooking them in a soup. This time, I left my son's stroller parked outside the supermarket.

Modern devices are such a wonder because they allow us to do so many things. But modern devices are also such a curse because they allow us to do so many things.

I have been trying to write for two hours every morning before I do anything else on my laptop. But it is just so distracting to have other apps opened at the same time: Claude, Brave Browser, Basecamp, Antigravity, Todoist, Notion Calendar. It is like eating oatmeal in front of an intercontinental breakfast buffet. Whenever I'm stuck writing, my brain will invent the most ridiculous task once it sees one of the other apps. "You know what, I should add a todo to write for two hours today in Todoist." The tasks are always small, so I don't feel bad spending a minute or so completing it. But my concentration has already been defeated, and I need to pay another few minutes to get back to writing.

Craig Mod writes on a separate laptop—without internet connection! I don't have the luxury of having another laptop... Hmm actually maybe I should get the new MacBook Neo? I remember it is quite affordable. It's a business expense, right? It'll help me concentrate and write better. Let me just quickly check... And there goes another half an hour.

Until I have an air-gap solution, I need an environment with better boundaries. For now, here is what I'm experimenting with:

1. Hard Shutdowns: At the end of the work day, I shut down my laptop, not just shut the lid. I made sure only Obsidian will open automatically on login. Opening any other app requires an additional step. Every time I turn on my laptop, I'm already in my writing setup. It is a digital version of laying out my running attire the night before a morning run.
2. Offline by Default: I set up a Shortcut to turn off my Wi-Fi and shut down my laptop. When I start a new day, my laptop doesn't have internet connection by default, so I don't get distracted by "a little" browsing until I'm done writing for at least two hours.

It might seem absurd that I resort to such friction to focus. But I know I can't trust my willpower alone. Creating the right environment beats relying on my willpower.