Stay in Your Lane

Scattered Focus Feels Like This

You jump from editor to email to community tabs—and suddenly, your box is gone. Frustration mounts as your flow slips through the cracks.

Opening Scene

You open your editor, then email, then a community tab, then back to the editor—and your box is gone. Guardrails would have kept you in bounds.

Momentum depends on attention. You don’t need deep work every day, but you do need clean lanes. Context guardrails protect your session from the three forces that break flow: too many modes at once, too many tabs, and too many interruptions.

Pick One Lane

Choose one lane for the day: build, talk, or write. You will touch other things, but one lane deserves your best box.

Naming your lane sets expectations and reduces guilt when you ignore other modes.
Build days favor UI tweaks or small features.
Talk days favor outreach, interviews, and asks.
Write days favor posts, docs, and emails that clarify your message.

Close the Tab Garden

Start your box by full-screening the file you will ship and closing unrelated apps.

Email and socials turn a 25-minute session into a collage of half-thoughts.
You don’t need to uninstall distractions—just put them one step farther away.
Usually, a browser window with only the relevant page open is enough.

Interruption Budget

Give yourself a small interruption budget—two per session is a good default.

When an out-of-scope thought pops up, park it in a note and return to the slice.
For true emergencies, spend a token and handle it quickly.
When tokens run out, end the session or renegotiate.

Reduce Context Rebuild

If you leave mid-task, write a one-line “next move” at the top of the file before you go.

When you return, you won’t wonder what you meant to do.
For multi-day slices, start by reading your last two lines and then typing the next line without browsing elsewhere.
These micro-rituals keep you in the lane.

Meeting Buffers

Protect meetings from leaking into your day.

Cluster scheduled calls when possible.
If clustering isn’t an option, put a 10-minute buffer before and after each call.
Use buffers for tiny ships or proof log updates.
Without buffers, your brain spends the day preparing and recovering instead of finishing.

What’s Next

Guardrails shrink switches and grow finishes. Next, we’ll build on this foundation by matching tasks to your energy levels—so you keep moving forward, even on couch days.

Momentum Hacks