Episode Details

What if the secret to doing your best work isn't working harder—it's working smarter by understanding when and how your brain actually functions?

Steven Puri has lived multiple lives: engineer, Hollywood film producer on blockbusters like Die Hard 5 and Wolverine, and now founder of Sukha, a flow state community that's helping high performers reclaim their time from the clutches of digital distraction. But his journey to building Sukha started with a revelation on a plane without WiFi—when 2 hours and 40 minutes vanished, his designs were done, and for the first time in years, he felt ahead of his day instead of behind it.

In this refreshingly honest conversation with leadership psychologist Lindsay Frances, Steven pulls back the curtain on his own struggles with phone addiction, YouTube rabbit holes, and the relentless pull of distraction. (Spoiler: Lindsay confesses to her own weaknesses involving sourdough Instagram and obsessive Whoop data checking.)

But this isn't just a conversation about what's broken—it's about what's possible. You'll discover why screenwriter Ron Bass refused to speak to his family before 10am (and how that discipline helped him write the words that convinced Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise to say yes), why trying to code at 3am nearly destroyed Steven's business, and how a random recording of rain in Nepal became one of the most powerful productivity tools for thousands of people.

Whether you're trying to finish that novel you've been carrying around for years, lead a team to do their best work, or simply want to stop taking your greatest ideas to the grave—this episode will change how you think about focus, time, and what you're truly capable of achieving.

Fair warning: After listening to this, you might finally understand why you've been fighting your own biology instead of working with it.

The Distraction Epidemic

1. Why everyone feels more distracted and overwhelmed than ever
2. Steven's two biggest distractions: phone addiction and YouTube rabbit holes
3. Lindsay's confession: Instagram sourdough recipes and obsessive Whoop data checking
4. The simple question that brings you back to focus: "What was I meant to be doing?"

Understanding Your Chronotype

1. The eye-opening story of screenwriter Ron Bass (Rain Man, My Best Friend's Wedding) who wouldn't speak to his family before 10am
2. How to discover your natural productivity rhythms with just paper and pencil
3. Why morning creativity works for some and fails for others
4. The evolutionary reason teenagers come alive at 11pm (and how this relates to tribal living patterns)
5. Steven's failed experiment: trying to code until 3am like Silicon Valley engineers

What Is Flow State?

1. Steven's accidental discovery of flow state on a plane without WiFi
2. The work of Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and his seminal research
3. The four conditions of flow: time disappears, distractions fade, you do your best work, and you feel uplifted (not deplet