#SocialSecurity 𝗯𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙗𝙚 𝙨𝙪𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 𝙞𝙛:
• you fail to respond to #ssa communications
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To focus deeper, keep a Distractions List
The most effective productivity strategies are usually pretty simple, and keeping a distractions list is no different. For focusing more deeply, it’s in a league of its own. Here’s the tactic: As you focus on an important task, keep a sheet of paper by your side to capture all of the distractions that come up. I personally like keeping mine on these 4x6-inch Post-it notes. The key is to capture everything. When you want to stop working on what’s in front of you to check email, capture that on your distractions list so that you can re-focus on the task at hand. When you want to pick up your phone instead of writing, put that on the list too. When it occurs to you to follow up with someone, capture that as well. These days, it can be incredibly challenging to focus on one thing at a time. Especially when we’ve got emails flying in, tasks we need to remember to do, and ideas we need to capture that occur to us as we do something else. Keeping a distractions list is a simple tactic, but it’s a great hack for staying focused on one thing at a time. As a bonus, when you’re finished with the task you intended to focus on, you get to go to town on your list. I personally capture every distraction that tries to derail my attention as I focus. Then, once my focus timer goes off, I engage with every distraction on the list—many of which were originally an impulse to engage with something interesting, like checking my social media accounts. Not all interruptions and distractions are within our control. But more often than not, the things that derail your attention as you work are. Keeping a distractions list is worthwhile if you want to focus more deeply and accomplish more in the same amount of time—while enjoying yourself guilt-free afterward.
If you like these ideas, I’m developing a comprehensive course on overcoming procrastination, which will also cover combatting overwhelm. If you want me to let you know when it goes live, click here!
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One practical "secret", with Gretchen RubinCheck out Gretchen Rubin's new book Secrets of Adulthood. I asked Gretchen if she could share one practical, tactical strategy from her book exclusively with you, my newsletter subscribers. Here's what she wrote! I highly recommend the book: "My new book Secrets of Adulthood includes a “secret” that I think that readers will find very useful: Working is one of the most dangerous forms of procrastination. Sometimes, when I’m facing a big task, I get the urge to clean my office or do endless research on random subjects. I’m not slacking off—I’m not reading in bed or watching TV. I’m being productive! Now, however, I recognize that being busy doesn’t mean I’m using my time well. In fact, I’m wary when I get the impulse to do a certain kind of work, such as clean out my email inbox. When I have an important looming task, that’s what I should tackle. Because it is so well-disguised, working is one of the most dangerous forms of procrastination." — Gretchen Rubin
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Today, reading a New York Times article titled “China Has an Army of Robots on Its Side in the Tariff War” stirred a deep well of sadness in me for America´s dilemma. The piece described how China’s massive investment in automation, artificial intelligence, and infrastructure is giving it a formidable edge in global manufacturing—despite rising tariffs from the U.S. It reminded me how deeply America has misunderstood the complexity of modern industry.
Manufacturing dominance can’t be restored with a trade barrier or a slogan. It takes decades of sustained investment in education, technology, and the welfare of a nation’s people—investments China has prioritized, while the U.S. has spent trillions on foreign wars and military supremacy.
For generations, American military spending has been sacrosanct. Whenever government budgets are cut, the defense department is spared. Could this be part of a lingering cowboy culture mindset? Just look at what’s come out of Hollywood and major media studios into American homes via television and video games: Mixed in with family programming is extreme violence, including sexual violence, sarcasm, and moral degradation often used as a twisted foil for “what is right.” This American cultural export is global.
(My mother, God bless her, wouldn’t even let me watch The Three Stooges as a child because Moe was always furiously poking Curly in the eye.)
For the past several years, my wife and I have made our home in a village in Mexico. From here, I can see more clearly the unraveling of a country I once believed in. The U.S. is struggling—with extreme polarization, mental illness, homelessness, economic inequality, addiction, and a cultural obsession with violent spectacle. The soul of the country seems adrift, fixated on dominance rather than dignity. Even with its flaws, Mexico feels more human. Here, people still center their lives around family, community, and simple shared rituals. There’s a sense of belonging and continuity that is vanishing in the States.
If America is to find its way again, it must look beyond brute strength and return to nurturing its human foundations. The path forward lies not in isolation or fear, but in courageously investing in its own people—educating minds, caring for hearts, and building communities rooted in mutual respect and purpose.
The attack on universities, the consolidation of power by self-serving elites, and the growing destruction of compassion—replaced by an “us vs. them” attitude—do not bode well. I grew up holding my hand over my heart every morning at school, facing the flag and reciting: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
