Tag: distractions

Routines pt. 1

by MAÔ, posted in Advice

The benefit of routines is the creation of a kind of daily specialization. Routines program your body to daily perform the same tasks (or similar tasks) at the same time. Your body knowing this, it starts to prepare for that task as the time nears.

You free up precious decision-making capabilities, your mind already aware of what you’re going to be doing. Then it can focus on limiting or ignoring potential distractions.

Routines are extremely beneficial, and routines can be designed around any number of specific needs – morning routines; workouts; meal planning; scheduling meetings (or running meetings); etc.

Some examples of morning routines can be found in My Morning Routine from Benjamin Spall and Michael Xander. 99U has a small book called Manage Your Day-To-Day. And of course, Tim Ferriss’s books Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors are full of examples you can use.

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My soul in stillness waits

by MAÔ, posted in Meditation

In meditation, especially early on in your practice, you will find yourself fidgety. Attention drifts, as it does when we focus on other things as well (work, personal life, wherever). The important thing is not to fight with yourself over the distraction, but to accept it, acknowledge it, and then it let it past you.

Like a rock in a river, many different things may bump and nudge you. You do not push back, but let it roll past you on its own journey.

Mindfully accepting distraction, and releasing it, is as much a part of meditating as the sitting in stillness.