Asceticism as a way to increase productivity

Without a deep loneliness can not be serious work. Pablo Picasso

Greg McKeon (Greg McKeown) - American writer and business coach of English origin. He holds a bachelor's degree in communications from Brigham Young University and an MBA from Stanford University.

He is the author of books and magazine articles on business, leadership and design. In particular, it book "Multipliers. How leaders can make their surroundings more intelligent " (Multipliers: how the best leaders make everyone smarter, 2010), co-written with Liz Wiseman (Liz Wiseman), a Wall Street Journal bestseller and is among the top 20 books on Amazon.

But recently, Greg McKeon "went to the monks."

Of course, no religious connotation is not here.

there was a serious task before McKeon - to write a book. But the lifestyle that he led (regular meetings, phone calls, local stresses), did not allow him to devote himself to this fundamental mental labor.

McKeon - known business coach. He has lectured at such companies as Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter and others. He currently - CEO THIS, specializing in leadership strategies (headquartered in Silicon Valley).

A year ago, he woke up in the middle of the night, I was sitting on my bed. I wanted to, but could not sleep. "I would not meet the deadline" - I sighed. There were two news. The good news is that these days the publisher agreed to publish my first "solo" book. The bad news - I have to write it.

Greg McKeon came to solving the problem rather radically. After consulting with his wife, he was at the time of writing the book was "a hermit."

In practice, this has resulted in that it is conducted in a closed space, alone, 20 hours a day (from 5 am to 1 o'clock) 5 days per week for 9 months. Almost all the time he was working.

McKeon equipped for this tiny "cell", a mini-office (see. photo), where, in spite of the small space, he found creative freedom.

For colleagues and partners McKeon left a message on the answering machine similar to the following:

Dear friends, I am currently working on a new book. It takes all my time. So I will not be able to respond promptly to your message. My apologies. Greg.

At the same time, to the deepest astonishment McKeon, no one took it as nonsense, did not swear and did not accuse him of being irresponsible. People reacted to the "hermit" Greg is absolutely normal.

Jobs reclusive regime to bear fruit. According to McKeon, he did not have to strain and force yourself to write - the words just flowed and fit themselves into sentences.

In terms of his personal life, it was also a lot of advantages. Spouse was sympathetic to the idea of ​​him and helped him. Greg spent with the family much more time than before (they communicated during lunch time and after 16 hours, when McKeon performed his daily "literary norm").

I was very disappointed when my hermit's life came to an end. So much so that a few weeks after the "return to the world" I began again to think about the retreat.

Many people approach McKeon seems too extreme. But, according to him, there is nothing unusual in it. After all, we live in a crazy world at breakneck speed. Close to the time in the "monastic cell" - a sensible move in an extreme environment.

How do you feel about the method of McKeon? Could you "become a monk" to achieve a major goal?

P.S.

The first "solo" book by Greg McKeon «Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less» It will be released in the spring of 2014.