Fighting the Chimp Brain: How to Beat Distraction and Actually Get Sh*t Done

The symbiotic relationship of the flow state and deep work

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When was the last time you sat down and worked on your passion project without distraction for at least an hour?

No phone, no interruptions, no checking email.

Passion and interest demand attention, and if we can’t give it, we feel hollow and empty. We may convince ourselves that our greatest mission in life is actually a lie. That our inability to focus is an indictment of our lack of obsession.

“Van Gogh created over 900 works of art, and I can’t even make progress on the piece I’ve been working on for the last three months.”

The issue isn’t that you don’t have the ability, it’s that you’re fighting your chimp brain. And so is everyone else.

When you’re sitting at your day job “working”, you’re likely scrolling Twitter — sorry “X” — texting friends about weekend plans or listening to a podcast. A good eight-hour day has maybe three hours of work scattered throughout. You take these habits home with you, and the thing you really want to do: build your business, write your novel, play the piano, becomes just another exercise in chasing focus.

What could you produce if you broke out of this cycle?

An uncomfortable fact is that the differentiating factor between those who are successful in the 21st century isn’t skill, money, or God-given talent, it’s the ability to fall into a state of deep work.

You may also know this feeling as the flow state.

A state of total, almost hallucinatory, engagement with the task. Where time becomes irrelevant.

This is less about seeking productivity with our craft and more about finding the lost and profound transformative engagement with the task at hand. It requires Spartan discipline and an understanding that our world, as it currently exists, is the mortal enemy of focus.

The “Productivity Hack” Pitfall

Our culture encourages analysis paralysis.

Every week there is a new bestseller promising to optimize our habits, task management, goals, and work/life balance. It’s a never-ending infomercial for how to be the best version of yourself.

And our masturbatory chimp-brain loves nothing more than finding cheap satisfaction in constantly spinning our wheels. We’ll spend hours creating digital dashboards to organize our lives instead of sitting down and doing the work that actually moves the needle.

I’m speaking from experience. I got lost in the self-help loop and realized I wasn’t making any tangible progress. I fell into the same cycle of distraction that I was used to at my day job. Rather than falling into the craft of connecting with my imagination and thoughts, I would write fifty words, check social media, lose my train of thought, and get frustrated.

So I started reading and researching…

And what I found allowed me to transform my creative capacity.

Two thinkers led the way: Cal Newport and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Newport, a computer scientist, coined the term “deep work” and currently focuses much of his career on exploring ideas related to attention management.

Csikszentmihalyi, a research psychologist, first popularized the concept of flow in his book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.

The minor differences between both ideas are complimentary and elegant. While Newport focuses primarily on the elimination of distraction and the need to optimize the external environment, Csikszentmihalyi takes an internal focus, highlighting the importance of the mental and psychological necessity of challenge and creative stimulation.

The purpose of the flow is to keep on flowing, not looking for a peak or utopia but staying in the flow. It is not a moving up but a continuous flowing; you move up to keep the flow going. There is no possible reason for climbing except the climbing itself; it is a self-communication.

-Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Here is a summary of their two primary ideas:

• Csikszentmihalyi and the Flow State: Flow, as articulated by Csikszentmihalyi, isn't just about immersion; it's about transcendence. It's in this state that the world fades, challenges become exhilarating, and our skills are in harmonious alignment with the task. Every action, thought, and movement is a seamless continuation of the previous one. It's where creativity and passion are untamed and uninhibited.

• Newport and Deep Work: Newport's idea of deep work isn't just about concentrated effort; it's about maintaining sacred commitment. It’s the disciplined act of dedicating undistracted, quality time, to tasks that push our cognitive boundaries each day. Building time into our day without access to email, social media, or even texts. Newport insists that in an age of distraction, the ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare, and thus, more valuable. It involves rigorous routines, a dedication to mastering complex tasks, and a vehement refusal to let shallow endeavors creep in.

• The Confluence of Concepts: Flow and deep work are symbiotic. To reach the state of flow, one needs the disciplined environment and habits that deep work cultivates. It's the melding of the right conditions (Deep Work) with the right mindset (Flow). Think of a programmer, carving out hours, shielded from the intrusions of the digital realm. As they fall into their code, the structure provided by deep work principles sets the stage, allowing the transcendence of flow to emerge.

While I generally loathe to-do’s, there are specific frameworks and practical strategies for falling effortlessly into this state of focused work.

1. Set Defined Boundaries: Designate specific times and spaces exclusively for deep, undistracted work. Turn your phone on airplane mode, or better yet, leave it in another room. If you live with others, clearly communicate that you will be engaging in focused, undistracted work for an allotted time. If distraction during the day is unavoidable, find time early in the morning or late at night when the environment is quiet.

2. Seek Challenge: Flow arises at the intersection of challenge and skill. Seek tasks that push you slightly beyond your comfort zone. If something is too easy, you will become bored and listless. Too difficult, and you’re likely to become frustrated. Find the zone between what you know and what you don’t know. Understand that the flow state isn’t about perfection, it’s about making mistakes that allow you to enjoy pushing your cognitive and creative abilities to the next level.

3. Embrace Routine: While it may seem counterintuitive, creativity often thrives within constraints. A routine can act as a framework that supports deep work and primes the mind. Set a minimum limit for output: word count, songs practiced, lines of code written, etc. This allows you to gamify the flow state. As you develop this habit, you’ll find that you can move the output threshold forward and tap into your momentum.

4. Cultivate a Growth Mindset: Believe in your ability to grow and develop skills. This mindset is a fertile ground for both deep work and flow, as it propels us to embrace challenges and dive deep into our tasks. You’re not going to unlock the secret or produce something that is revolutionary the first time you find the flow state in your work. This is a lie that procrastinators tell themselves. The most prolific minds commit to laying one-brick each day when building a temple.

5. A Healthy Body is a Healthy Mind: If you’re not nourished, hydrated, or engaged in a routine of rigorous regular exercise, your body and mind will fight you. Stretch, take frequent walks, eat well; when you sit down to work the last thing you want is to feel sluggish or on edge because your body isn’t getting the proper movement or fuel that it needs.

If you don't produce, you won't thrive—no matter how skilled or talented you are. Clarity about what matters provides clarity about what does not. Who you are, what you think, feel, and do, what you love—is the sum of what you focus on.

-Cal Newport

The portfolio of your life is created in the routine that you develop. A garden doesn’t spring out of the ground if it isn’t de-weeded and regularly watered. You must treat your mind the same way to become a master of your craft.

You must find what others can’t, the ability to turn away from the endless distractions that swallow us from the moment we wake up to the moment our head hits the pillow.

If you can do this, you become part of the 1%. The select few who hold the ability to find in themselves the same output of the Renaissance Men of the past, who can contribute to the great stream of ideas in the world, who can change the culture through consistent and focused action.