Reading time: Just over 1 minute
This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help other writers. Today I discuss a blog post written by Derek Sivers…
I’ve just returned from a marvellous three-week August holiday. My husband and I went to the easternmost province in Canada, Newfoundland, and spent two glorious weeks there, including an afternoon at the easternmost piece of land in North America, Cape Spear (see photo, above.)
After that, I went to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where I participated in a debate camp with six students from the local high school where I volunteer as a coach. And after that, my husband and I spent two days in New Brunswick, visiting with some much-loved cousins.
All in all, it was a extraordinarily relaxing vacation with a little bit of intellectual stimulation thrown in by the debate camp. I didn’t absolve myself from email — I hate returning home to thousands of unread email messages and usually find it easier to spend 20 minutes a day processing what I can. But that was the only work I did. No phone calls. No meetings. No client crises. Oh, and I read books instead of watching Netflix.
In other words, I was (mostly) disconnected as Derek Sivers recommends in his thoughtful blog post linked here. Here’s how Sivers puts it:
Silence is a great canvas for your thoughts. That vacuum helps turn all your inputs into output. That lack of interruption is a great ingredient for flow. Every business wants to get you addicted to their infinite updates, pings, chats, messages, and news. But if what you want out of life is to create, then those things are the first to go. People often ask me what they can do to be more successful. I say disconnect. Unplug. Turn off your phone and wifi. Focus. Write. Practice. Create.
If you’ve never heard of Sivers, he’s an American entrepreneur best known for being the founder and former president of CD Baby, an online CD store for independent musicians. I’m a big fan of his book, Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur, which I read earlier this year.