# Chapter 77

“Limit your inputs” - Ryan Holiday

This is so much more difficult than you would think. There are inputs that I have control over and they all conspire against me to ding, ping , blow, honk, beep, chirp, and play harps to gain, muster, keep and compete for my attention. This morning I was rudely awaken by one of these dang blasted things, as I evidently forgot to set one of the iPads to airport mode before going to bed, and the wretched thing was blowing up at 5:00am which means I was awake and not going to be able to go back to sleep. Because once my brain kicks in, there is not any more sleep on the horizon.

It drives my wife crazy that I turn everything to airport mode before going to bed. It drives me crazy that she is unwilling to limit her inputs (and MY inputs!) when she goes to bed. What the heck are you gonna help with or accomplish in the middle of the night???? Anywho, sometimes I forget to turn everything off that can be turned off, and for certain those are gonna start dinging and pinging in the night. And for the record, I am turning those screens off more and more in the daytime as well.

But there are inputs I can’t control, like the TV my dad insists on watching right this very moment at 6:00 am in the morning. Or if he wasn’t watching the TV, then he would be sitting across from me talking, even though he knows I am working and thinking and writing and that I need to concentrate and focus. These are uncontrollable inputs. Yes I can change rooms, but my dad will just follow me. But everyone has inputs that they have limited control over. Shoot, my dad is watching tv AND talking to me now!

Limit your inputs as much as possible, you might be able to control more than you think, or you may not. But don’t give up on this one, keep trying!