10 days without the Internet: Tony Schwartz its full reboot

Recently, more and more people began to arrange a fasting days, completely abandoning the internet. Sometimes to restart two days enough not to stay "in touch", allow yourself to relax and plunge into the offline life, which, as it turns out, is also in full swing. Sometimes to zero need more than a weekend with the family in the countryside. Someone arranges himself a sabbatical year long time in 7 years, someone leaves the network the whole year, as did Paul Miller (The blogger Verge), and someone tries to keep within a short period of time allowed by the labor legislation, employers or self-employed.

Tony Schwartz, CEO The Energy Project and author of the productive work Be Excellent at AnythingI decided to completely disconnect yourself from the matrix for 10 days. We read what came of it, and make notes to yourself in the future.

Before leaving on vacation, Tony took with him all the gadgets and almost all the time was due. It was always possible to get to the workers questions and he kept his finger on the pulse of events, reading news and checking email. But this year has been difficult - a lot of new staff, a lot of work and new projects. So this time he needed a complete reboot. Zeroing. This was necessary as previously favorite work became a burden.

He decided not to delay until the moment when you need to "surgery" and has taken preventive measures - went on vacation for 10 days, completely disconnected from the Internet.

"One of the fundamental principles that we teach in our Energy Project - the more you spend at work, the more time you need to recover. I need a vacation, but that's what I really need to - it's a complete disconnect from the digital world. My brain is overloaded with information, and I need to clean it.

My wife and I booked a room for 9 days at our favorite hotel. But I knew that just walk away from my office and still be tied to my online work and life through the Internet is not enough. I decided not to take my laptop, iPad or my mobile phone. And I left a message that clearly gave to understand that I will not be checking your email.

I was determined to eliminate from his life all temptation as much as possible. From the past my experience, I remembered how I easily succumb to temptation at the first opportunity.

He writes in his book, Daniel Goleman, a steady overload our attention reduces internal control. Life among the permanent digital distractions creates almost constant cognitive overload. And this overload wears our self-control.

From the moment I got on the plane at the beginning of our trip, I noticed a change. I usually slip between reading newspapers and magazines, the answer to the letter and Cerf Web (if that was possible). This time I brought a huge pile of books, mostly novels or books not related to work. I started to read one of them and quickly plunged into the reading head. This time nothing more to distract my attention.

The first impulse was to look into the network of Google search for what I read. The initial impetus was quite strong, but I ignored him. As it happened twelve times over the next few days, but every time I ignored these impulses and simply watched their feelings. By mid-week, when I no longer feel the urge to look at the Internet, I realized how much richer getting any experience, if it does not interrupt and do not be distracted by extraneous things, even if the violator - I.

It turned out that in our hotel there is no news of newspapers. And my first reaction to it was a slight panic - I read The New York Times daily from adolescence. But soon I realized that I used to absorb more information than I really needed.

I realized that the amount of information that I can be compared with multiple daily users pizza slices and hot dogs and french fries - not very nutritious and there is still a sense of hunger.

Every day, my ability to focus increased. Within a month, I would like to read a book by Andrew Solomon «Far From the Tree» about child-rearing issues with disabilities. In this book was more than 1 000 pages - who has free time to read such a book?! But when my mind is completely free from the distractions, I started to read it, completely absorbed in it, and read much of it in just a few days. The book was fascinating.

I experienced a similar experience and on the tennis court. I took lessons and worked on his technique all his adult life. And during this week-long vacation, I had the opportunity to slow down and analyze my punches with a completely different level of patience and unhurried interest. This was the version of the training that you yourself just can not afford when you need to think simultaneously about 10 objects at once.

By the end of the ninth day I felt full of strength and enrichment. Due to the prevailing silence in my brain again I was able to regain control of their attention. In the process, I rediscovered a deeper part of yourself.

If during my absence someone would urgently need to contact with me, he could do it. But the truth was that nothing required my attention or presence. Most things can wait.

And finally, I felt ready to return to their daily lives and even enthusiastically read the accumulated mail and looked to favorite sites. I also felt a lot quieter in the attitude of those cases that were previously introduced me to stress.

This break gave me the understanding that these passages of time away from the digital world is crucial in upgrading and in the work itself. After that, I introduced myself to two rituals:

• Twice a week I'll be spending a few hours at home, working on projects that require close attention, with a complete shutdown of the Internet and e-mail.
• At the end of each working day, I plan to spend at least half an hour to read a book, savoring every page.

The key to a productive life - is regular and total stop "!

Ahead of the May holidays - a great opportunity to try to shut down for at least three days.

A photo: Shutterstock