Wrestling with distraction and discovering that the real enemy might not be the tools themselves, but our constant urge to keep our minds busy.

The Enemy of Productivity

There are so many things I do. I have so many companies, professions, knowledge, and yet today I was unable to focus at all. Who is my enemy? It's very hard to tell.

Is it the screen? Is it the smartphone itself that is my enemy towards my fulfillment, towards my goals, towards my dreams, towards my creations? Who is the enemy? Is it the smartphone? I'm not sure. I'm not sure if it was the smartphone itself.

Well, what about my laptop? If it's just the screen technology, like just the LCD technology. Maybe.

Maybe just the social media itself, like the apps themselves, those websites, you know, the websites of social media. And if I could just remove them, then I would be a focused man. Maybe.

But then what about the news websites? What about news in general? What about my emails? What about phone calls to your family? What about playing around with new tools, new things? What about all of those?

How can you know who is the enemy? How can I know what to block, what to fight against? Should I just fight against my feeds? I don't think it's enough. Should I fight against my habits? I don't think it's enough.

I think there's something else going on. Because even before all the people had all of this technology I'm describing, well, they just read the news in the newspaper. Or read books. To keep their mind busy.

I think that's the enemy. Keeping my mind busy.

I think the joy is just not focusing on anything. Just let yourself wander. I think that's what's missing for me.

Maybe the enemy is actually the urge to always do something. The unsettlement, the uneasement. Maybe the only way out of it is just staring at an empty wall.