Hi Josh,

Thanks for the post!

Like a few other blog posts you wrote, I feel a connection to them.

This one I am also struggling with. For me, I'm trying to too many things to get things going.
Reading about Stoics, using an app called Waking Up, with meditation practices.
Although it does help (slowly), maybe it's too fancy.

When I read your post, I realized my ways might be too complicated.

Just stopping and setting limits sounds like a good solution, and I'm always looking for 30 days challenges :)

Just a quick question though.
What did you do when you got bored? Since that is the main motivation for me to go back to my laptop / phone etc.

Grtz
Ralf

Hi Ralf,

For the first week or so it is going to be uncomfortable. You'll have to embrace the boredom. Boredom is when renewal takes place. However, in the first week or so you'll be more or less detoxing from the technology and won't enjoy that spare time. You've been conditioned to always be entertained and masked it with the label of productivity. Here are a few things I'd recommend you use that spare time for. Be present. Notice who and what is around you. Are there dishes that need done? Things that need picked up? Do chores to keep your body busy and let your mind wander. Also be aware of who is around you. Use the idle moments to think about them their needs, concerns and joys. Talk about those things.

Don't read this and think I have it all figured out. I'm very susceptible to the snares of productivity myself. But, this is what I'm doing to avoid them. I wish you the best Ralf! Thank you so much for your comments on my blog. It's awesome to know someone is reading them! Have a great day!

Hi Josh,

I came across your tweet about how you made SRE a couple of nights ago. I clicked around on your Twitter profile and some other material. I quickly realised how you write about things which hit home for me.

Today I read this post, "You Are an Engineer Be an Engineer", "Detaching from Distraction", listened to "SAS 041 – Digital Declutter with Josh Duffney" with Dustin Reybrouck and "DIGITAL MINIMALISM" with Don Jones.

I'm motivated to hear you speak because I suffer with focus and attention. In the last couple of years I'm convinced I have ADD or similar. However today I'm starting to accept maybe it's me being too connected and reacting at everyone else's demand.

I've added several books to my "want to read" in goodreads.com recommended by you:

- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
- The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
- Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
- Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
- Be the Master: Achieve Success & Help Others

I'm very much like how you described your old self: made little effort in school regarding reading and here I am finding it very demanding to absorb written information.

Maybe there's still a chance I suffer with something medically mental related. I'm not sure if I'll rule that out. However at least now I have things to learn and try. Whereas right now I'm aimlessly putting up with my quirks, feeling frustrated, disappointed, sometimes angry.

It's also an inspiration to learn you were once L1, then L3 for a long time and hit a low, but cranked it up a gear and sidestepped to your dream role using Azure, PowerShell, Ansible, CI/CD DevOps-y type work. I _think_ that's the sort of role I want to sidestep to as well. I find it inspirational because I relate: I aimlessly learn with no real application of what I learn.

Another thing I felt was inspiring was that you learnt ways to deal with the connected world and how that negatively impacts your time. You try to make success happen at home and work with limited time and lots of drive. From reading and listening to you in the last couple of days, I think I've had a reality check. Time is more effectively spent if you take control, and more importantly, there's more important things in this world than work.

The only question I have is: I would love to know what that path to DevOps with PowerShell looks like, is it mostly what you defined here: https://twitter.com/joshduf...

Cheers
Adam

First and foremost, thank you for your comment. I'm rather speechless if I'm honest. I'm truly very happy that sharing my journey, progress, and struggle has added value.

To answer your question, that's not a fully exhaustive list. There's many more tools, technologies, books, and podcasts I've used to get to where I am. Some I touch on in this tweet.

https://twitter.com/joshduf...

While I could list a volley of resources, I'll reply with just two. These two books set me in the right direction and down the DevOps path.

The Phoenix project the story of a new future. It builds the mental model and mindset that will get you started. Most of all it brings awareness to how things could be and what things you should be striving for.

https://www.amazon.com/Phoe...

Practice of Cloud System Administration is the how. It gives you the tactical and strategic models to follow. It's a blueprint for a high performing operations team. SRE or not.

https://www.amazon.com/Prac...

I hope this helps, and I wish you the best of luck! Please reach out if I can be of assistance. Reading your words, I can relate. I have memories of myself living as you've described. Truth be told I still have days like those. There are somethings outside of our control, but there are also many things that are within our control. Focus on what you can control.