Daily Gleanings: Focus (2 December 2019)

Corey Pemberton discusses eight specific types of challenges with focus and provides some suggestions for overcoming each type.

December 2, 2019 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Daily Gleanings: Digital Distractions (13 November 2019)

Daily Gleanings about avoiding digital distractions, prioritizing writing, using social pressure, and sleeping.

November 13, 2019 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Daily Gleanings: Freedom (7 November 2019)

Daily Gleanings about Freedom for Chrome OS and Linux.

November 7, 2019 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Daily Gleanings: White-listing (4 November 2019)

Daily Gleanings about Freedom’s release of white-listing for Windows users.

November 4, 2019 · 1 min · J. David Stark
Freedom Logo

How to Use Freedom to Support Your Priorities

Freedom is a powerful tool. It allows us to set priorities for our time ahead of time when we’re thinking clearly about what’s most important.

October 28, 2019 · 5 min · J. David Stark

Daily Gleanings: Focus for Study (9 October 2019)

Daily Gleanings from Freedom about how to focus your attention better when studying.

October 9, 2019 · 2 min · J. David Stark

Daily Gleanings: Indistractability (4 October 2019)

Daily Gleanings about Nir Eyal’s discussion about how to improve focus and become “indistractable.”

October 4, 2019 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Daily Gleanings: Freedom for iOS (30 September 2019)

Daily Gleanings about the return of app blocking to Freedom for iOS.

September 30, 2019 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Daily Gleanings: Focus (14 August 2019)

Daily Gleanings about focus and Focusmate.

August 14, 2019 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Daily Gleanings (9 August 2019)

Daily Gleanings from Mark Goodacre about “sourceomania” and from Nir Eyal about distraction and focus.

August 9, 2019 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Daily Gleanings: Freedom (22 July 2019)

Daily Gleanings from Freedom about distractions (digital and otherwise) and how to overcome them to improve your focus on what matters.

July 22, 2019 · 2 min · J. David Stark

Daily Gleanings: Avoiding Distraction (25 July 2019)

Daily Gleanings from Michael Hyatt and Megan Hyatt Miller about how to avoid drifting through life and from Cal Newport about avoiding digital distraction.

June 25, 2019 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Daily Gleanings: Insights from Freedom (24 June 2019)

Daily Gleanings from Freedom on the new Insight extension for Chrome and on how to manage time effectively and cut the clutter of distraction.

June 24, 2019 · 2 min · J. David Stark

Daily Gleanings (29 May 2019)

Daily Gleanings from Freedom about the new Pause extension for Chrome and from Michael Kruger about contemporary cultural influences on the New Perspective.

May 29, 2019 · 2 min · J. David Stark

Daily Gleanings (1 May 2019)

Gleanings about Logos Bible Software, focus, and distraction.

May 1, 2019 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Daily Gleanings (30 April 2019)

Gleanings about focus, distraction, social media, and essentialism.

April 30, 2019 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Daily Gleanings (29 April 2019)

Gleanings about focus, distractions, and Paul’s thought about incorporation in the Messiah.

April 29, 2019 · 2 min · J. David Stark

Technology and Distraction

Tristan Harris, former design ethicist at Google, discusses at TED the interplay between technology, attention, and distraction.

September 1, 2017 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Scheduling focus

Freedom has a helpful tutorial about being “more productive in the afternoon.” The same principles apply to whenever is one’s preferred time for focused work.

August 28, 2017 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Focus—there’s an app for that

Digital devices and media can make focus difficult. Freedom provides helpful of “training wheels” to foster better focus amid such distractions.

August 16, 2017 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Toward not multitasking on the Dropbox blog

The Dropbox blog has a short essay on the downsides of trying to multitask. Rather than multitasking, deep and singular focus is just what the doctor ordered, but in our hyper-connected world, it isn’t always easy…. You could chuck all your gadgets and move to the woods, but luckily you don’t need to get that drastic. Experts say you can begin to retrain your brain and take advantage of deep focus by concentrating on one thing at a time, managing your use of technology, and reframing the “instant-response” expectations of your colleagues—and yourself. ...

June 6, 2017 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Hyatt's Interview with Newport

Michael Hyatt has a helpful interview with Cal Newport, author of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World (Grand Central, 2016). According to Newport, Focus is now the lifeblood of this economy. Why? Because focus is rare and distraction abundant. As Hyatt comments, ...

May 1, 2017 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Free to focus—on sleep?

Free to Focus logo As part of Michael Hyatt’s Free to Focus resource set, he’s made available three treat the significance for productivity of adequate, quality sleep: Interview with Shawn Stevenson (video) Unleash Nature’s Secret Weapon eBook (PDF) 13 Essential Keys to a Good Night’s Sleep (PDF) Shawn Stevenson’s core business certainly falls in an area where probably few biblical scholars will care to follow. But some of the implications of the expertise that he has for broader productivity applications may indeed prove informative and helpful. ...

March 31, 2017 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Tips for better focus

Michael Hyatt has a helpful discussion of 10 tips for enabling better focus. For me, suggestions 5 (“Take email … software offline.”) and 6 (“Put on music that helps facilitates concentration.”) have tended to prove particularly helpful. For Michael’s discussion of these tips and the other 8 he provides, see his original post. ...

March 30, 2017 · 1 min · J. David Stark

Eliminating distractions

Going along with his Free to Focus material, Michael Hyatt has a helpful, free resource about eliminating distractions. The material in this resource is designed to work with and complement the content Michael delivers in his webinar, The 7 Deadly Sins of Productivity: The Hidden Habits Undermining Your Performance (And How to Change Them). ...

March 27, 2017 · 1 min · J. David Stark