Undistractability is a superpower

I recently saw this popular note on Substack:

90% of writing is:

• Taking long walks
• Blocking the internet
• Doing interesting things
• Capturing ideas everywhere
• Listening to people’s questions

When you do these every day, strong writing is simply a byproduct.

It resonates with my own experience: when I tend to my physical movement whilst intentionally engaging with ideas and people, the writing flows naturally.

But “blocking the internet” strikes me as a unique point.

The other points relate to ways of engaging and recording. But without some discipline around what comes into your field of attention, it’s too easy to get lost.

Even if you had all 4 other points in the bag, you could still be overwhelmed with irrelevance if you’d not consciously pushed back against the tide of notifications, news and updates.

We can blame phones, but it’s a wider issue with the Internet and browsers as a whole. Having everything at your fingertips also means your fingertips are constantly at risk of clogging up. Those information pores are fragile.

Being able to block things out is also the toughest point on the list. It means confronting the fear of missing out and removing a crutch that would allow you to subtly drift off into distraction instead of creating something new.

Undistractability is a superpower. It’s becoming increasingly rare for people to have the attentional resilience to 1) tend their somatic and emotional foundations and 2) engage in deep, single-pointed work around their passions.

The only way I’m able to publish every day is through blocking out everything else first thing in the morning. Otherwise, there are too many lukewarm demands that might lift me atop their tide.

What else can you block out to narrow your focus on the vital?