The Importance of Switching to Airplane Mode (Solitude Time)
Episode #5 of the course The fundamentals of mastering your focus by Som Bathla
I welcome you to Day 5 of this course. Today, we will understand the strategy of selecting our solitude time. I call it “Switching to Airplane Mode.”
How You Can Switch to Airplane Mode
This strategy should be taken literally, but it’s an analogy too.
In the literal sense, you should ideally put your phone in airplane mode during the day for a limited amount of time. It can be just under 30 minutes a day or up to two hours, depending on the nature of your work.
As an analogy, you need to put yourself in airplane mode for some time every day. In other words, you should get rid of any kind of distraction for a dedicated period. Allow your mind to wander in solitude; it could be as little as 15 minutes or as long as one to two hours, whatever your circumstances permit. How can you do this?
Well, there is one effective tool. If you ever get a chance to pick the brains of the topmost successful entrepreneurs in the world, there is one thing that is common among them. This brain-picking exercise was shared by Tim Ferriss for his latest book, Tools of Titans, comprising the wisdom of more than 200 interviews of successful entrepreneurs on his podcast.
Tim states the most common ritual among more than 90% of his interviewees, who happen to be billionaires, icons, and world-class performers, is their daily habit of doing meditation. It is because our mind needs time to reflect on what it has learned during the day. The whole day, your mind is exposed to tons of information. It could be the most useful set of information or a piece of junk. The relaxation and connecting with yourself on a daily basis allows your mind time to process the relevancy of all that information cohesively.
Why Is It Important?
The modern-day life has become hectic, and we don’t find time to rejuvenate at all. You have long office commutes, endless office email messages, and whatever’s left is already filled with social media networks and general news updates. With all this, your mind is always in a state of consuming information and processing the same. Even when you sleep, with such an overthinking mind, the quality of sleep is not that great.
Many studies have corroborated the idea that our mental resources are continuously depleted throughout the day and that various kinds of rest and downtime can both replenish those reserves and increase their volume. During this period of solitude and being with yourself only, you get to see your thoughts. You disengage with the outside world, but at the same time, you connect with your subconscious mind.
You may have heard that all big ideas are generated in the minds of successful people during periods of such solitude. Most senior executives often state that they got their best ideas when they were on vacation. Many brilliant ideas took birth in the shower. Sir Isaac Newton invented the law of gravity while sitting idle under a tree.
Keep in mind that continuous consumption of information does not make you smarter; rather, assimilation of all that information through the processing of mind in the relaxed state is what can make a whole difference. So, give your mind the gift of renewal. It will enhance your focus and quality of work greatly.
Enjoy your solitude. Tomorrow, we will discuss how should you batch your tasks and thus build your focus.
Take care.
Som
Recommended book
Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
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