3875: On Living in Caves and Fighting Distractions by Maneesh Sethi with The Minimalists on Deep Focus

Optimal Living Daily - Personal Development and Self-Improvement

Optimal Living Daily LLC

Education, Health & Fitness, Mental Health, Self-improvement

4.6 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 12 January 2026

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3875: Maneesh Sethi explores how eliminating modern distractions and radically shifting his environment unlocked levels of focus he didn’t know he had. By living in a cave without technology, he discovered that productivity, clarity, and purpose aren't about willpower, they're about creating the right context. Read along with the original article(s) here: http://www.theminimalists.com/maneesh/ Quotes to ponder: "Minimalism, at its root, is more than just throwing away everything that you own. It’s about learning to thrive, not survive, but thrive, regardless of your circumstances." "Success isn’t about being 'on' all the time, it’s about focusing for intense bursts of time, and then disengaging." "You have to create a self-reinforcing context that makes it impossible to fail." Episode references: Eben Pagan - The Snacking Society (via GetAltitude archive): https://ebenpagantraining.com Seneca - Letters from a Stoic: https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Stoic-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140442103 Hack The System: https://www.hackthesystem.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:33.7	Have you ever noticed how a calm mind can really set the stage for a good night's sleep?
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0:41.2	Greg, our host from Optimal Relationships Daily, is here to help ease you into a peaceful
0:45.5	night's rest with some positive affirmations.
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1:05.8	Optimal Living Daily. It's a minimalist Monday edition of Optimal Living Daily. On Living in Caves and Fighting
1:14.2	Distractions by Manish Sati with the Minimalist.com. And I'm Justin Mollick, the guy reading to you every
1:20.3	day of the year. We get right to it as we optimize your life. On living in caves and fighting distractions by Minishati, or alive.
1:33.7	On living in caves and fighting distractions by Manich Saiti with theminimalist.com.
1:40.0	It's funny, it took a week of living alone in a cave with no technology to finally launch my website. Roman students of Stoicism were often taught to practice that which they feared most
1:45.4	in order to experience the world that they were afraid of. As I was reading Seneca one day,
	...

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