Why 90 Minutes of Focus Beats a 10-Hour Workday

Watch the YouTube version of this episode HERE

Why does it feel like you’re working all day… but nothing important actually gets done? In this episode of Maximum Lawyer Live, Tyson breaks down the real enemy of execution: engineered distraction. From social media and news cycles to emails, chats, and notifications, the modern workday is designed to fracture your attention. Tyson makes the case that focus isn’t a personality trait or an ADHD problem—it’s a systems problem. If your environment is noisy, your output will be mediocre, no matter how hard you try.

Tyson exposes the hidden cost of distraction, including the fact that every task switch can cost over 23 minutes of lost focus. That’s not inefficiency—that’s sabotage. He shares practical, no-nonsense fixes: aggressive notification control, phone Focus modes, muting keywords and people, and intentionally designing your workspace so it supports deep work instead of constant interruption. As a law firm owner, your job isn’t to respond faster—it’s to think clearer and design better systems.

The real takeaway is uncomfortable but freeing: most exhaustion doesn’t come from work—it comes from mental noise. Tyson shows how to replace mindless consumption with intentional action, protect your best thinking, and focus on what actually compounds over time. With the right systems in place, as little as 90 minutes of uninterrupted deep work per day can outperform scattered 8–10 hour workdays. Less noise. Better decisions. Real progress.

• 2:27 Task Switching and Deep Focus
• 5:34 Engineering Your Own Distractions
• 7:50 Optimizing Work Environment and Notifications
• 9:40 Managing Social Media and Information Inputs
• 12:31 The Psychological Impact of Negative News
• 14:37 Quality of Thoughts and Algorithmic Influence
• 17:50 Scheduling Focus and Task Lists
• 18:44 Investing in Relationships and Time Blocking
• 20:37 Minimizing Distractions During Deep Work
• 21:25 Stop Feeding What You Can’t Affect
• 26:13 Email Management and Weekly Goals
• 27:14 The Power of 90 Minutes of Deep Work

Tune in to today’s episode and checkout the full show notes here.