I enjoyed this article quite a bit. The author liked the habits of thinkers of old and tries to do the same thing, but rather than a daily routine (in the morning), he does it once per week. He takes 2 hours to do nothing but think.
I like that idea. A lot.
In the evening, I remove all possible distractions, especially electronics like my phone and my laptop, and I basically lock myself in a room to question my work and my lifestyle with a pen and a notebook.
2 hours is a long time, and some of it will feel unproductive and not all of it will be structured, but I have a few general things that I almost always start off with to set me in motion.
After reading this excerpt from Kevin Rose’s newsletter, I’ve been looking for ways to adopt this practice myself:
Lately, I’ve tried to introduce a little boredom into my life by revamping my morning routine. Instead of turning off the alarm on my phone (which pulls me right into notifications and Instagram), I’ve now switched to an analog bedside alarm.
After turning off the alarm, I purposely avoid all electronics (TV, laptop, phone, etc.) for the first hour of the day. I shower, then take the dog to the local coffee shop, leaving my phone at home. Once I have my coffee (or tea, depending on the day) I just sit, letting myself daydream and wake up slowly for about 30 minutes.
After reading it, I thought it sounded great. But how could I achieve something like this in my own life? With kids, the town we live in, and our location (far from all coffee shops), this routine would not exactly work. But are there other ways to achieve the same net effect?
I spent one morning just giving myself this time to think on things. I spend a lot of mornings reading my Bible, praying, then moving on to studying, writing, or just getting ready for work. Oh, and reading online. So I took one morning and just sat and thought about stuff. It would end in reading my Bible, but I gave myself the entire 90 minutes to just slowly get ready for the day.
But I was still open to other ideas on how to have a time like this. As regularly as possible. It would be hard, obviously, as I do not have a great deal of margin when it comes to my time in this stage of my life.
However, taking a 2 hour block of time each week sounds a lot more doable.
