Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day

by Jake Knapp

26. Put Your Toys Away Your real life begins after putting your house in order. —MARIE KONDO Picture this: You’re ready to work on your Highlight. Maybe it’s a short story you’ve wanted to write or a proposal you need to get done for work. So you grab your laptop, flip open the screen, type in your password, and… “LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!” Every browser tab screams at you. Your email automatically refreshes to show a dozen new messages. Facebook, Twitter, CNN…headlines flash, notifications pop up all over the place. You can’t start on your Highlight just yet—you’ve got to tend to those tabs first and see what’s new. Now picture this: You grab your laptop, flip open the screen, and then…you see a beautiful photograph on your desktop and nothing else. No messages. No browser tabs. You signed out of email and chat at the end of the day yesterday, confident that if something urgent came up overnight, someone would call or text you. The silence is blissful. You’re ready to rock. Reacting to what’s in front of you is always easier than doing what you intend. And when they’re staring you right in the face, tasks such as checking email, responding to a chat, and reading the news feel urgent and important—but they rarely are. If you want to get into Laser mode faster, we recommend putting your toys away. That means signing out of apps like Twitter and Facebook, closing extra tabs, and turning off email and chat at the end of each day. Like a well-behaved kid, clean up af...