The Top 10 Things I Learned about Productivity Living in Total Isolation for 10 Days

I well-nigh quit this productivity experiment on day five.

I hated this experiment. Hated hated hated hated hated this experiment. Every morning I woke upward with no free energy, no motivation, and feeling like the life had been completely sucked out of me. I had no social support network to autumn back on, felt completely isolated well-nigh all of the time, woke up sick most mornings considering the basement was so goddamned cold, and experienced deep, emotional trenches that left me tired, exhausted, and depressed.

And at the same time, I loved this experiment. I loved living on an island, a cocooned paradise where no ane could contact me or reach me. I felt unburdened by the commitments that come with people. All of my time was mine – I wasn't being tugged in a million directions – I could move freely, productive or otherwise, in whatever hell management I wanted.

Y'all could say that this experiment had its ups and downs.

The purpose of living in reclusion was to dive deep into how social interactions impact productivity, and I certainly did that. At 5pm today I'chiliad stepping out of my cocoon and back into the real world, just non before writing about the things I've learned down here. Here are the summit ten things I learned about productivity while living in reclusion for x days.

x. Wait a fleck before sending important emails/messages

I think virtually everyone has Tweets, emails, text messages, pictures, and other online stuff they'd like to take dorsum, and can't.

On my computer's desktop I have a big-ass text file with a ton of emails, tweets, and blog comments that I wasn't immune to send during the course of this experiment. Here'southward the interesting part: as the file has been sitting there for the concluding 10 days, I acceptsignificantly revised the more than important messages in the batch, and sometimes completely inverse some after I would take already hit 'Transport.' Most of my edits took place in the 24 hours after I wrote the original message.

When you give your mind time to collect and form thoughts, what you lot say is more complete, valuable, creative, and more often than not better. Before hitting 'Send' on your next important email, endeavor waiting several hours, or even a day if you tin can. The earth certainly won't fall apart, and you'll be able to get your signal across much stronger.

nine. Don't swallow several standard mandarin oranges when you lot're going to live in the same small room for 10 days

The room I lived in for the final 10 days is tiny, and mandarin oranges give me a lot of gas. Needless to say, this is a lesson you should accept to centre if y'all ever find yourself spending time in reclusion.

8. Information technology's easier to 'let yourself go' when there aren't people around

Toward the finish of the experiment, particularly as I began to write more and make less videos about the experiment, I began to care a lot less nearly my appearance. I dressed sloppier, ate poorer, and didn't care a hell of a lot about impressing people (and not in a badass kind of way, either).

I'll personally admit that one of the reasons I desire to get fitter, more focused, smarter, and so on is vanity. It isn't theonly reason, but it's one of them. I want people to look at me and remember, "Holy s**t, is that man ever [bare]!" Without people effectually to impress, I establish myself letting get of my appearance.

I'm not sure if this lesson can exist generalized, merely I'one thousand going to practise it anyway.When you're surrounded by more people, especially if receiving validation motivates you, you will endeavor harder to brand yourself into a improve person.

7. Meditation is the key to staying sane

Over the final 10 days, I've meditated for 47 minutes a solar day, on average, and this has undoubtedly kept me sane in reclusion. At the beginning of my experiment, I institute my listen racing and restless, but after each meditation, my mind revved downwardly considerably.Meditation may merely exist the key to keeping your mind calm and in check.

As the one-time Buddhist maxim goes, "You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes every day – unless you're as well busy; then you lot should sit for an 60 minutes."

half-dozen. Digital connections provide a much smaller return than real connections

Over the last 10 days, equally I separated myself from my real and digital connections (people I haven't met), I came to the realization that my existent connections are profoundly unlike than digital connections.Real connections are deeper, more valuable, and provide greater returns as you invest more time and energy into them.

The problem is, and maybe y'all're like me with this, I invest way more time into my digital connections than my real connections. That's not to say that there isn't a human being being on the other end of every Twitter account (except for Horse ebooks, of grade), just that is to say real relationships will provide you lot with much larger returns.The fox is to spend your time in a way that matches up with that fact.

5. The near boring, cliché things are the things that really piece of work

I recall that backside every cliche is a truth that's and so powerful that people feel compelled to repeat the phrase over and over and over. Work out. Get a good amount of slumber. Eat well. Take a vitamin every day. Beverage a lot of water. The trouble is that they're repeated so often that they lose almost all of their meaning.

By twenty-four hours iii, I was sick, stuffed up, had problem breathing, and generally felt terrible. But then I started drinking a ton of water, taking vitamins, eating impeccably, and began to focus more on getting a proficient amount of slumber each night instead of trying to wake upwardly at five:xxx every morn (for another productivity experiment).As soon as I started doing these boring, cliché things, my health, attitude, motivation, and energy levels all instantly perked upward. These things work.

Every mean solar day I was allowed two, 10-minute trips upstairs, and throughout each day I made a listing of what to get.

4. Without people around, you take high highs, merely lower lows

Ii news manufactures were published almost my project while I was in reclusion, and to exist honest, this fabricated me experience just every bit adept down here alone equally I would have felt surrounded past friends.

But when I hit the 'lows' of this experiment – taking three hours to fall comatose, battling a huge cold, getting fatigued considering of a lack of slumber, and becoming sadder than I had been in months – I had no social support network down hither as a condom net.

I call back a lot of people remember they don't need people when they're on top of the world, only to find they're lone when they inevitably come up back down over again.

As a rule, I think people embellish pretty much everything.

3. Sunlight elevates your mood, regulates your sleep, and gives you free energy and motivation

This was a lesson then large that I wrote a whole other article about it.When you don't have enough exposure to sunlight (like me throughout the experiment), your sleep quality severely suffers (since the sun regulates your sleep bicycle), you're less able to handle stress and manage your attending, and you have significantly less free energy.

two. Stepping back from what you lot do gives y'all a valuable, bigger perspective

We spend most of our time at 'basis level', entrenched in whatever we're doing. It isn't until we step dorsum from what we're doing that nosotros tin run across it from a broader perspective. Living in reclusion, I focused generally on work, and I found it incredibly difficult to step dorsum from this project. But at the aforementioned time, I was virtually to gain an incredible perspective on where things like my relationships, finances, and health fit into who I am, mostly because I was able to step back from those elements of my life.Stepping back from the elements that incorporate your life gives them meaning, gives y'all purpose, and allows yous to see how what you lot exercise fits into the bigger picture show of who you are.

1. People matter (more than you lot think)

At the end of the day (well, 10 days), I was less productive in reclusion than I would accept been usually. Everyone has a different definition of productivity, butnigh of the benchmarks I use to measure how productive I am involve people, such as how happy I brand other people, and the difference I'm able to make. When you take people out of that equation, either a) you're not able to reach much, or b) what you do accomplish doesn't mean a hell of a lot.

For me, people are my tapestry; so interwoven with who I am and what I do that I take them for granted. Simply over the last 10 days, similar electricity, I've missed all of the people in my life when they were gone.

Throughout this experiment I have been less motivated, energetic, enthusiastic, and happy than I take been for a long time. Sure, some of that is because I'm non getting any sunlight, but I think it's mostly because I take had no social interactions for the final 10 days.

People matter, mayhap a lot more than you remember. This isn't an experiment I'll repeat, only that said, I sure every bit hell learned a lot.

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Source: https://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/the-top-10-things-learned-about-productivity-living-total-isolation-for-10-days.html

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