Well, I relate to both this and the older &#x27;bad correspondent&#x27; article immensely. I have struggled with this for at least 2-3 years now. The only times I can be truly productive (in music, programming or visual stuff) is when I feel like I have a cocoon where there will be no interruptions with 100% certainty.<p>For me personally the cell phone is a bigger problem than the internet, since people get annoyed when I don&#x27;t pick up the phone, but I also notice I need to stop clicking endlessly all night on web sites to calm my mind down to get to that mental space for creativity.<p>Basically the best periods I&#x27;ve had were when others were on vacation or I was, and there was some natural unbroken few days where there was no anxiety at all about being interrupted. The question is how to make it happen. I basically just turn off my phone, close the browser, go for a walk, try to get the nerves calmed down, and hopefully something comes out of it that night.<p>It&#x27;s really quite annoying though, because 7 years ago it wasn&#x27;t like this. I don&#x27;t want to be a recluse, I just want to balance the two things and have that be okay.