What helps when you cannot keep your mind on a task?
Answer
For me, one small physical act: the phone in the bag. In the last week of January I could not keep my mind on anything and felt near a burnout-like experience. On 3 February I took the train to Amsterdam with a pen, a few sheets of paper and the phone out of reach, and wrote that the constant companionship was the problem: with the phone in the bag it was as if you close a draughty door. That evening I sketched a tool for a customer that became the real thing a week later. It was not a conversion, ten days later I was back to digital, but what stayed was smaller and useful: a notebook in the bag, notifications only when I decide, and seven months later I still start every month on paper.