Lines of Drift

The author argues that willpower is too unreliable to win the daily fight against distraction, so attention needs structural fixes, and describes applying the military concept of "natural lines of drift" to their own focus. Over a period of logging distractions, they found three main patterns: distractions usually begin mid-task when a notification or email interrupts, they tend to pull them into further content streams, and they are most likely during unstructured time, abstract goals, or moments of discomfort like hunger or tiredness. In response, they label risky actions such as opening their Farcaster feed or changing their YouTube soundtrack as high risk, predefine their morning routine, and start each two-hour work block with a concrete task tied to a metric.