You've tried every distraction-blocking app. Here's why you still can't focus for more than 10 minutes.

[u/Phukovsky]

You could transform your focus in 30 days. The knowledge exists, the methods are proven, and you probably already know most of what you need to do. But knowing isn't the problem. If it were, you'd already be doing deep work every day. So what's actually stopping you?

I've been exploring this question on Reddit for a couple years, and I've noticed a pattern. We consume endless content about focus but rarely practice focusing. We read books, watch videos, download apps, but the actual sitting down and doing focused work for 30 minutes? That rarely happens.

We've become collectors of information rather than practitioners of improvement.

Think about what you already know about doing deeply focused work:

• Turn your phone off and put it in another room
• Clear your desk of everything except what you need
• Pick one task to work on
• Work for at least 30 minutes without interruption

This isn't secret knowledge. You could have written this list yourself, and you've probably read versions of it dozens of times.

The issue is that we've confused learning about focus with actually building focus.

It's like someone who spends months reading about strength training, studying perfect form, understanding muscle fibres and protein synthesis, but never actually picks up a weight. They become an expert in exercise theory while their muscles remain exactly the same. Knowledge doesn't build strength; doing the actual reps does.

Except what you're doing is even worse than that. Your brain has spent years, maybe decades, training itself in the opposite direction. Every notification you've responded to, every tab you've impulsively opened, every "quick check" of your phone has strengthened those distraction pathways. You can't think your way out of this pattern any more than you can think yourself into better cardiovascular health.

You have to practice your way out, one messy, uncomfortable session at a time.

What's really missing isn't information or tools. It's implementation and accountability.

Implementation is the unsexy part where you actually sit down, turn everything off, and struggle through 30 minutes of focused work.

Accountability is having someone who notices when you don't show up, who asks what happened when you quit after 7 minutes, who helps you get back on track when you inevitably fall off.

This gap between knowing and doing is where most of us live our entire lives. We become experts at learning about improvement while remaining beginners at actually improving. We read about meditation but don't sit. We study nutrition but don't change what we eat. We understand the importance of focus but don't do concentration calisthenics.

So I want to ask you directly: if you've been following this sub, if you downloaded the deep work guide I shared last week, but you're still not doing regular deep work sessions, what's actually stopping you?

Is it:

• The discomfort of those first few minutes when your brain screams for stimulation?
• Having no one to check in on your progress?
• Not knowing how to start?
• Something else entirely?

[u/BasicFocus2024]

Reading about productivity/focus/deep work/you name it is a form of entertainment. Totally unrelated to the thing itself.

[u/Phukovsky]

I'm now considering running a small cohort where we would actually do deep work together, with real structure and accountability. Not another course just talking about focus, but actual practice sessions where we show up and do the work.

And yet also different from FocusMate and CaveDay and other online co-working groups (including ones I used to facilitate). More systematic.

The idea would be to bridge that gap between knowing and doing through consistent, structured, and supported practice.