After 100 Workations, I Stopped Blaming Willpower for Bad Deep Work

Last updated: 2026-09-17

After more than 100 workations, I got tired of showing up somewhere and realizing I couldn’t do real work.

I’d book the place, put deep work on the calendar, and sit down ready to think. Then the internet was too slow. Or the desk was cluttered. Or my phone was sitting within arm’s length, which means I was going to check it. I used to treat that as something I should push through. Now I run retrospectives after trips. What worked? What wrecked the work? Those answers became a pre-trip checklist for remote work environments, so the setup is right before I even arrive.

Most people fail at deep work because they make classic mistakes that sabotage their focus before they start. Then they decide they lack discipline. Stop trying to force a pickleball rally with a flap ball. Audit your current deep work setup and look for the design flaws. The skill is real. The room has to be able to hold it.

Add friction before you sit down

If your phone is within arm’s length, you are likely to check it. Put it in a different room. Every time you reach for it and it’s not there, you remove the likelihood of distraction. You never have to win a fight with a device that’s sitting on the desk.

Keep the desk clutter-free while you’re at it. Sticky notes and shallow tasks on your desk keep your brain in shallow mode. You sat down for strategy or creative writing, and now you’re staring at a reminder to send an email. Of course your attention slides.

Does this sound familiar? You block time, open the doc, and a few minutes later you’re on your phone.

I won’t bore you with every line on my pre-trip checklist. The item that eliminates the most bad options is internet speed. I check it before I book. I’ll use a site like Nomad List, or I’ll ask the host for screenshots of a speed test. That extra step means I don’t find out after I’ve arrived that the place can’t support the work I came to do. The environment is set up for success before I even get there.

You can build the home version of this today. Create a Deep Work Environment Checklist. Start with questions like these:

Is the internet fast? If the connection can’t support the work, the block is already broken.

Is the desk clear? Clutter pulls you back into shallow tasks. Clear it before you sit down.

Is the phone in another room? Another room. Not face-down next to the keyboard. Another room.

Then do the 30-Minute Reset. Spend 30 minutes decluttering your desk and moving your phone to another room before your next deep work block. Environment design beats willpower. Do the reset once and you’ll feel how much of “I can’t focus” was a messy surface and a phone you could reach.

Stop giving your worst hours to your best work

Do you protect your mornings for the hardest thinking, or do you hand them to whatever is already on the calendar?

The energy management trap is scheduling deep work based on calendar availability rather than biological energy. There’s a hole at 3 PM, so that’s when the strategy doc goes. Or the article. Or whatever needs a brain that still works. If you’re fried by then, you’re fighting an uphill battle. Sitting in the chair with nothing left still looks like a deep work session on the calendar. It does not feel like one.

Match task intensity to your energy peaks.

High energy, morning. Strategy. Creative writing. The high-focus work. Put it here, when you actually have the fuel.

Medium energy, early afternoon. Outlining fits. You’re still thinking, but you’re not asking your brain for the hardest work of the day in a window where it’s already sliding.

Low energy, when you dip. Admin. Email. The tasks that don’t need your biological prime time.

Biological prime time is the window where your brain can actually do the heavy work. If you never map it, you’ll keep donating that window to email and then wondering why the 3 PM writing block feels impossible.

For the next three days, map your energy levels. Morning, early afternoon, the dip. Note when you’re sharp and when you’re cooked. Then reschedule one deep work block so it lands in your peak window. One block. That’s the experiment.

If you aren’t resting, you aren’t doing deep work

Sleep is the silent killer of productivity.

Sacrificing sleep to work more makes productivity suffer the next day. You got extra hours. You paid for them with tomorrow’s focus and tomorrow’s decisions.

After just three nights of good sleep, decision-making and focus operate on a completely different level. Same projects. Different brain. You can protect the calendar, clear the desk, hide the phone, and still have nothing in the tank.

Prioritize sleep as a productivity tool, not a leisure activity you get once the list is clear. If rest has been the first thing you cut, start with the(https://www.asianefficiency.com/) resources on Asian Efficiency and treat that as part of the system.

Deep work is a skill that can be developed over time, but it requires addressing the foundational elements: energy management and environmental design. Once you fix these underlying issues, you’ll be surprised how much progress you can make on big projects without sacrificing your health or sanity.

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Right now, do one thing. The 30-Minute Reset. Clear the desk. Put the phone in another room. Then sit down.