The Freedom to Focus on High Performance Play

We were delighted to see Rory McIlroy, PGA tour champion and #1 ranked golfer in the world, discuss how he uses Freedom as part of his toolkit for high performance. Drawing on inspiration from Cal Newport’s excellent book Digital Minimalism, Rory uses a range of techniques to manage his time on screens during high-intensity tournament play. These range from locking his phone away in a drawer (a genius move) to using Freedom to limit websites and news sources.

“It’s called Freedom, which is actually a really good word for what it does. It frees you of — it’s like a URL content blocker, basically, so if you just want to have a week or a month where you see no news, no social media, whatever, you can block all that content on your phone. It’s just basically like an extra layer of a VPN so that you only see what you need to on your phone whether it’s a text message, a call or email.”

Rory McIlroy to Golf Magazine

We think it’s a winning strategy, as Rory’s unparalleled record demonstrates. Golf is the ultimate mental game, requiring hours of focus under high pressure. And as players know, there’s also plenty of downtime to have your focus impaired by an email, a notification, a or news story. We’re honored that Rory would include Freedom in his toolkit for high performance.

As readers of our blog know, we love singing the praise of Freedom users. The countless books, movies, dissertations, and other meaningful projects completed with Freedom are what motivate us to come to work every day. Wether you’re just getting started, or you’re at the top of your profession, we’re here to help you reduce digital distractions and be more productive.

And as a disclaimer, Rory is not an endorser of Freedom – his mention was a surprise to us! We’re pleased to see him talking about our product and wanted to share our happy news.

Image courtesy RoryMcIlroy.com