When I started my career in 1998, 1999, for maybe the first decade, I was trying to be productive. I was trying to make the most efficient use of every minute and answer all my emails and do every to-do list. And I reached this moment where I realized, Oh my God, if I keep doing that, if I keep sort of spinning that hamster wheel, I'm not going to be as effective as I can.

If I can clear time, like a week at a time and focus on the most important project, radically better things happen. There might be an opportunity that I see that's of much greater value where I can create much better results. These focused bursts of work, like John said, where you're focusing on the same thing for hour after hour after hour, and then even day after day after day, the depth that my focus could get into was way, way higher.

It was like the way I've been thinking about productivity and efficiency is all wrong.