Most of the work that feels meaningful to us requires more than an hour. Real thinking, real making, real conversation, and real rest all unfold on a different timescale than the one our devices encourage.
When we live in a constant state of responsiveness, we train ourselves to think in small units. The mind becomes accustomed to switching tasks and rarely settles into the slower rhythms that certain kinds of work demand.
Uninterrupted time is not a luxury. It is the medium in which certain experiences can only occur. The person who never experiences long stretches of focused time will simply never know what their mind is capable of producing in those conditions.
The difficulty is that uninterrupted time rarely arrives by accident. It has to be protected, often against strong cultural pressure to be available and responsive.
The people who protect it are not necessarily more disciplined than others. They have simply decided that certain things matter more to them than constant accessibility.