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So you have to ask yourself, what are you constructing your life around? How are you structuring things?
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Are the things that you're supposed to do entertaining in comparison to the things that you use as distractions?
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Because the larger the disparity, the more agonizing that thing will be. And you'll find very quickly that if you delete distractions as an option, it works right away. It's insane.
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This isn't like some dopamine detox that you gotta do over weeks and months and years, although that will help you get used to finding the entertainment value in difficult things.
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This is something that works right away because your brain needs to to survive. It hates feeling bored.
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So it will make whatever your only option is as entertaining as it needs to. I even have personal evidence for this.
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One of the most productive, social, and energetic times in my entire life is when I was living in a little 900 square foot basement suite in the middle of suburbia with absolutely nothing to do except edit videos.
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I was absolutely broke. And to edit these videos that I had to do for my very few corporate freelance videography clients.
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I was sitting on an upside down laundry hamper because I couldn't afford an office chair, but this was deeply motivating to me.
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Although I did live with my friend, Alex, he was hardly ever around so I had these long periods of loneliness.
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But that sting of loneliness made me social. It made me make plans, it made me seek opportunities. My lack of money made me seek money.
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And most importantly, the lack of things to do in there, the lack of distractions that I surrounded myself with, made me extremely bored.
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Bored enough that editing videos and being highly creative and doing what I love actually felt entertaining as well.
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So there's a perfect example of my environmental conditioning helping facilitate a mindset of creativity and attitude of productivity. It's because I had very few other options.
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So in summary, if you have something you need to do right now, then eliminate all your back doors, turn off your phone, remove your gaming PC from your room, remove your Xbox.
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Auto hide the toolbar so when you're thinking of the next word to write, you don't look at Safari and automatically click on it.
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And in living life this way and treating productivity this way, it's not that you're going to live a less entertaining life.
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In fact, you might find it far more entertaining and fulfilling and empowering than you ever knew possible.