My personal trick fwiw is to treat it just like exercise.
If you're just starting out running, you shouldn't say "ok I'm gonna run a marathon". That might be your end goal, but the actual achievable goal in the meantime is to make incremental progress.
Schedule (yes, actually put on your calendar) time to engage in focused work. Start with 5 minutes a day. You won't get any actual deep work done at first, but that's fine. It's about building the muscle. Add 5 minutes a day, or every other day if you're struggling. It quickly adds up - you'll be at an hour within 2 weeks if you make steady progress.
If you fail to achieve your goal, note it and try again tomorrow. If you repeatedly fail, subtract 5 minutes and keep at that level until you're comfortable with adding more time.
Much like exercising, this small incremental progress is also something you may have to fall back on when you lose track of it for awhile.
> Schedule (yes, actually put on your calendar) time to engage in focused work. Start with 5 minutes a day. You won't get any actual deep work done at first, but that's fine. It's about building the muscle. Add 5 minutes a day, or every other day if you're struggling. It quickly adds up - you'll be at an hour within 2 weeks if you make steady progress.
That's what worked for me in developing healthy habits. After about 180 failed attempts of just completely overhauling my schedule and being perfect in all ways starting Day 1, I dialed way back and just focused on 1 new habit every 2 weeks. Sometimes if it was a simple one, I might add a new habit per week. But taking it slow and reducing bad behaviors (binge watching entire seasons of reality TV over the weekend) and adding in healthier things in their place (reading nonfiction, going to the gym) allowed me to slowly but gradually really improve my life.
Will try the incremental deep work focus this week- thanks for the idea!
If you're just starting out running, you shouldn't say "ok I'm gonna run a marathon". That might be your end goal, but the actual achievable goal in the meantime is to make incremental progress.
Schedule (yes, actually put on your calendar) time to engage in focused work. Start with 5 minutes a day. You won't get any actual deep work done at first, but that's fine. It's about building the muscle. Add 5 minutes a day, or every other day if you're struggling. It quickly adds up - you'll be at an hour within 2 weeks if you make steady progress.
If you fail to achieve your goal, note it and try again tomorrow. If you repeatedly fail, subtract 5 minutes and keep at that level until you're comfortable with adding more time.
Much like exercising, this small incremental progress is also something you may have to fall back on when you lose track of it for awhile.