No, it is not about switching off your devices. And, It is not about handling distractions.
”All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” – Blaise Pascal. (French philosopher)
Have you heard of Circadian Rhythms or Ultradian Rhythms?
Ultradian Cycle. There is an energy cycle for every human that goes up burning all the energy and comes down to heal and go again. It doesn’t strictly have to be a 90-20 minute wave. But something closer to it and it differs for every human.
In Circadian Rhythm, the cycle goes between 16:8 hours Wake Sleep cycle.
It is clear that our body needs rest to get back to the previous energy-full state. It needs that to recover the lost energy. If you’re going to perform at high intensity, you’re going to lose a lot of energy.
If you need to perform at high intensity every time — you need rest. Mental rest is more important than physical. The mind almost can’t turn off except while sleeping (dreaming is also a state where the mind is working).
Switch off your mind.
You can’t exactly control your mind and switch it off at your whims. At least not everyone can. But we can give a similar experience to your brain.
Meditation looks like a super-scam if you’re not trying it consistently for more than a month and at least for 15 minutes a day.
The point here is not to meditate. The point here to switch your mind away from whats currently concerning it. That is your current task on hand.
Giving the mind the feeling of rest, without shutting it.
Just try not to act or react to anything for a few minutes — even on your thoughts. Just watch them go in different directions. Watch your brain that thinks out of the box. Witness your brain mixing ideas with different areas.
You can now see the new energy barging in.
Distractions
Switching off devices to avoid distraction is just a step, not the actual act of meditating. Stay away from things that trigger your thoughts or lead them in undesired directions.
Switch off your mind. Offload your thoughts. Just stay away from the actual tasks that drained you.
If you can’t meditate, just walk for 5 minutes away from the environment of work. Meditate while you walk.
Another alternative is meditate actively by writing your thoughts. Just like Intermittent journaling, but writing things exactly irrelevant to the task.
Do it before switching to another task or project. A quick ’switch-off’ will cleanse your attention residue.
Do it before making decisions. You can’t pour your complete energy and mind into a decision that you don’t completely believe.
These are the reason why Pomodoro technique or 52-17 technique works efficiently.
A little bit of mentally-alone time every then and there is the secret for incredible performance boost.
