[shoover]

Yep. This book develops a solid basis for why this matters and offers many practical techniques for implementation, including seriously questioning whether each and every online service you visit is truly required to support your work and who you are, and ditching the ones that aren't.

A key tip from the book is to practice building resistance to caving. Set a time limit for the next time you will check. However short that limit needs to be is fine; the key is to build resistance and extend it. The book argues you need to maintain this ability to resist during off hours, too. It's fine to have long sessions of surfing online and do it more often than during work, but continuing to set limits and resist the urge to just grab it and check is important for not losing everything you may have built up during the day or week.

There is a whole section and recurring theme on the finite, depletable nature of willpower and the end to set up a routine to build habits to protect your willpower reserves. It's very tactical.

I found the many examples of real people applying the principles to their personal situations inspirational, such as from the author himself, professor colleagues, Carl Jung, Don Knuth, and various business and tech folks he interviewed.