[9:08 pm: Fielding support tickets at the planetary outpost.]

I've interrupted the building process to get rid of some distractions. Building is a Level 1 action I can't do without, but can be multiplied via Level 2 actions like improving focus.

House is too noisy. People are blasting the TV. Options:

• Ask them to lower the TV volume. Cost: Mental effort in negotiating and overcoming any fears about resistance.
• Ask them to wear headphones. Cost: Mental effort in negotiating, possible cost of having to buy them headphones.
• Leave the house. Go to a coffee shop or library. Cost: Gas, bus fare, or calories.
• Work at another time. Cost: Delayed progress and possible suboptimal energy levels.

Phone keeps sending distracting notifications. Options:

• Delete all apps except for 5 that are crucial for business growth. Cost: Price paid for each app and a level of sadness ranging from mild dejection to supreme anguish.
• Keep the phone in a separate room while you're working. Cost: Time spent walking back and forth to the room (7 seconds).
• Disable notifications and badges. Cost: 2 minutes of going through settings.

Fun websites and games are just a click away. Options:

• Blocking websites via a tool like RescueTime. Cost: $99/yr as of 20220326.
• Try a Futz Hackfest. Get to the point of starting the work that needs to be done, then start a leisurely task like browsing a random interesting forum or watching a movie. Eventually, I get bored with The Dark Playground and start itching to get to work. Once I've started work, I can usually keep going for a long period. Cost: 5-10 minutes of futzing around before getting to work [1].
• Another version of the Futz Hackfest. Get the work environment all set up, then get the futzing activity all set up, e.g. fire up a movie. Before continuing the movie, commit to doing just 1 minute of the main work task before getting back to the movie. After completing that 1 minute, I'll usually see one more quick thing I could do for the main task. Just this one last thing and I'll start watching the exciting new movie I've been wanting to see forever! Boom, game over. By this point, I'm usually way too engrossed with the main work task to even care about the leisure activity. Cost: 10-15 seconds to pull up a fun website, movie/TV show/YouTube video, or video game. This comes with the risk that I spend too much time choosing the leisure activity. I can sometimes get wrapped up in browsing the list of movies and shows available. One way I've sorta mitigated this is keeping a large "watch later" playlist and just choosing the first one on that list.

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[1] My manager at a previous job would always have a TV playing in the background when I walked in. I wondered how she could work with that, but now think she was doing a variant of this tactic.

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