My month without internet

Finding time to go offline is never easy. “The right moment” for this is practically non-existent, because you can miss opportunities or even lose your business from outside the access zone. But! Such periods are extremely important in determining where your efforts will be most beneficial , both to you personally and to the company. How to organize it?

If you are not busy actively searching for ways to "disconnect", it is unlikely to happen by itself.
No one will argue that good nutrition and exercise are important components of a good physical condition. But now we are starting to take care seriously about our brains, controlling our own attention .
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Attention - this is an extremely scarce product. From the subject on which we concentrate, it depends on what we feed our mind.

"Shutdown" helps to clarify the situation a little. Therefore, in 2015, the author of the article made his second sea voyage across the Atlantic ^★ .

The voyage along the northern Atlantic Ocean from St. Martin (Caribbean) to Horta (Azores) lasted 21 days. What was understood during your time offline?

Inspiration for a whole month

Going offline was like “inspiring yourself” for a month. And it turned out great! This is a most valuable experience, allowing you to step back and reflect on your actions. Here are the questions that the author visited during his offline life.

• What classes do I like most?
• What is the impact of my participation on the business, for example, can I delegate my responsibilities to others?
• If tomorrow I stop appearing in the office, how will this affect the team and customers?

Such questions may be scary, but they are extremely important in determining where your efforts will be most beneficial, both to you personally and to the company. If someone else does the job better than you, that's great! If you particularly enjoy doing a particular job, then you should probably keep doing it. Honest answers will help you, after returning, to focus on the most important and understand what makes you the most enthusiastic.

Targeted creation of conditions for offline care

While at home or on the road, the author almost always remains in the access zone - and this is invaluable, especially for those who travel frequently. Now you can fly to any country and still maintain connection to the global network. In most of the places we visit there is wi-fi and / or 4G. We are constantly in touch.

This is certainly encouraging, but the Internet today is so omnipresent that going offline can be difficult. I would like to be able to sometimes “get out” of it in order to engage in the cultivation of one's own knowledge and research, as well as the development of insight.

The author of the article decided to be on board, and you may prefer a mountain or a jungle.

Whatever you choose, the key point is the focus of offline care. If the Internet is easy to reach, just by touching a device, it is very difficult to resist the temptation and not return to it! For example, Outsite.co offers camps in California that allow you to escape and “disconnect” from the world.

If the environment did not provide the author with a complete physical lack of communication, he would probably go online to “check the cases” in a few days.

It takes time to get rid of current attitudes and existing habits - for example, checking phones. It took the author 3-5 days to move away from his daily activities, even though he was damn busy running the ship.

At the end of the voyage, the guys reached the port of Orta, and then the author flew to his native Paris and fell asleep around one in the morning. After some time, he woke up awakened by a familiar sound — raindrops were drumming on the window, and several thoughts passed through his head:

“It’s raining ... it’s very bad that it’s going to be damp in the cockpit on my watch ... interesting, have they moved the sails already?”

After a few moments, the author opened his eyes and realized that he was no longer on board, but in Paris, in his own apartment.

Amazingly, we adapt equally quickly to both difficulties and conveniences. And our behavior changes in accordance with the situation - the environment affects the actions performed.

Application of knowledge after returning to online

The very next day, the author returned to full-fledged city life and began to reflect on the sustainability of his attention. How much did he previously dig in the phone, waking up in the morning ?

“After waking up, 79% of smartphone owners are immersed in their device for 15 minutes”

Nir Eyal

Going offline trains attention, allowing you to respond only to the information currently available - without add-ons from the outside world. This is the opposite of receiving notifications.

Returning to work after a month of travel without communication: everything seemed amazing and refreshing. The new experience helped us understand our own attitude to everything and determine which projects and actions are more inspiring.

Returning, the author made sure to concentrate on the tasks that bring him pleasure and are subject to his influence to the greatest extent.

Going offline has brought tremendous benefits to creativity. Often around 5 am, the crew used headlamps to record their thoughts and ideas. It helped to reflect on new ideas and business concepts.

As a result, the author now tries to doze or meditate every day , began to write a book, carefully keeps a diary and plays with colorings. The development of a new skill or an activity of some kind helps it to be more fully present in the current moment

Finishing work on this article, the author flew along the route Paris-New York and looked out the window. Contemplation of the Atlantic roused many memories!

Then the pilots warned that the arrival will be delayed for an hour. The author could not help smiling, realizing that it would still be as much as 20 days faster than his previous crossing of the Atlantic!

PS We recommend another article on the topic - 10 lessons that I learned after I began to use the smartphone 60 minutes a day.

Translated by Vyacheslav Davidenko, founder of MBA Consult .