How to minimize distractions before they start
đź‘‹ Welcome back to the Medium Newsletter
Issue #141: Obama’s summer sounds, saying the quiet part loud, and 30/30 feedback
By Harris Sockel
One of the best things I ever did for my productivity — and it’s a super small thing — was to hide my dock on Mac OS. Actually, first I removed all the pre-loaded apps I’ll never use on my work computer (Pages, News, Garage Band). Then I hid it. Finally, no more manipulative red dots! Only after getting rid of those dots and ever-present icons do you realize how much energy tech companies have poured into drawing your attention away from whatever you’re trying to do.
Even if you don’t use a Mac, the underlying principle applies: the best way to help yourself focus is to control your environment.
We tend to think of our workspace as a physical location, but as Niklas Göke writes, “your computer screen is an environment you choose to enter, consciously or unconsciously.” There are a few things you can do proactively to make it a more focused zone for deep work, like turning on Do Not Disturb and cutting down on open tabs. I loved these 10 time management techniques from former Airbnb product lead Lenny Rachitsky, each of which doubles as a way to take back your attention. One of them I practice religiously — using my calendar as a to-do list:
If any of this resonated with you (and this is not remotely sponsored, I’m just a fan!), I recommend Arc — it’s a browser that automatically deletes your unsaved tabs after 12 hours. As someone whose Chrome tabs regularly ran amok (and crashed my computer), I can say that Arc made me considerably more sane.
⚡ Lighting round: Great, recent Medium stories in 2 sentences or less
- Highlights from Barack Obama’s 2024 summer listening and reading lists: “365” by Charli XCX, Hanif Abdurraqib’s memoir There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension, and LA-based indie hip hop producer Calimossa’s “What’s in the Tea?”
- A leader’s main job is to say the quiet part loud. If everyone on your team is talking about something and you haven’t acknowledged it, you’re already too late.
- Alexa V.S. challenged herself to walk 20K steps/day — and found that while she was exhausted at first, a few months into the experiment she started to feel an energy boost like never before.
🗣️ Your daily dose of practical wisdom: about ongoing feedback
Most companies do performance reviews (affectionately known as “perf” here at Medium) once or twice a year, if that. Business strategist Amanda Swim offers a better option: a quick 30-minute feedback sesh every 30 days. Your manager and you each bring three pieces of positive and constructive feedback for each other. Boom. That’s it. Now maybe you won’t need to wait until December to find out if your boss thinks you’re doing okay or not.
Quiz: Zoom In
Below is a zoomed-in version of an image related to one of the stories linked above. If you know what it is, email us: tips@medium.com. First to guess correctly will win a free Medium membership.
Congratulations to yesterday’s winner, Mariam Hassib, for deciphering a blurry, sparse image — it’s the second circular figure in Ralph Ammer’s “Is perfection boring?”
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Edited and produced by Scott Lamb & Carly Rose Gillis
Questions, feedback, or story suggestions? Email us: tips@medium.com
