The truth about distraction

Oliver Burkeman · by 18 Aug 2021

Others here said this too

Work that matters requires tolerating discomfort and boredom rather than escaping into distraction.

Their wordsConsider the possibility that mild discomfort – butterflies in the stomach, a sense of difficulty, a moment of boredom – might simply be the price of doing things you care about.

Also said by Cal Newport

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Oliver Burkeman did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Distraction is not something done to you: you turn to it willingly, to escape the discomfort of the thing you actually care about.

Their wordsyou don’t get dragged away against your will. You surrender willingly.
Our reading
Blocking apps and personal rules do not cure distraction, because they close the escape route without touching what is being escaped.

Their wordsThis is why most anti-distraction hacks – web-blocking apps, noise-canceling headphones, personal rules – never seem to work very well.
Our reading
Work that matters requires tolerating discomfort and boredom rather than escaping into distraction.

Their wordsConsider the possibility that mild discomfort – butterflies in the stomach, a sense of difficulty, a moment of boredom – might simply be the price of doing things you care about.

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The other pieces are the ones whose claims are worded most like this one's. That measures language, not agreement: they may argue the opposite.