Gaining back agency.

Resistance takes our agency away. It uses its cunning to keep us trapped in distractions and displacement activities. The more time we spend there, the more difficult it becomes for us to gain back our agency.

Agency requires intention. It requires us to decide what we are working on and then to stay on the task. It requires us to ignore the chatter inside our heads about how everything else is more important or more urgent.

Sometimes, the task would seem mundane like putting away laundry or taking a shower or cleaning your work desk. And Resistance would convince us to try and do deep work instead of getting these chores done. It knows that if these tasks remain open, we won’t be able to get much deep work done too.

Deep work requires us to concentrate and trust. And if something broken keeps taking away our attention, it’s better to fix it first and then come back to deep work.