To become better, we have to be comfortable spending time alone without distractions. Call it mediation or me-time, done with eyes closed or open, with a writing book or without. The idea is that one has to enjoy one’s own company – the self and the silence. As the last paragraph on “The Invitation” puts it:
I want to know
if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.
For me, I create time with myself whenever possible. The early morning and late nights are the best. There is something about the “sounds of silence”. As the Paul Simon poem puts it:
Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
All my writing happens early in the morning (from 5 am) – when the darkness and stillness of the night has still not given way to the morning buzz. Weekdays, I think and write for about an hour, while on weekends it stretches to about 2-3 hours.
In this “me-time”, I am not distracted by emails and WhatsApp messages. There is nothing that cannot wait for a few hours. I recreate the comfort of the inflight experience: sitting in one place with just one’s mind to oneself. This is when the ideas “flow”. We need chunky time for this – and our devices and notifications have taken it away from us. The temptation to pick up the phone or switch from Word to Thunderbird must be resisted. It is only then, with each passing minute, that we get into a high productivity zone.
I am able to create a bubble around me at any time, even in noisy surroundings. All I need is my notebook. At times, I am stuck in meetings which I cannot exit or escape. My notebook comes to my rescue. I mentally switch off and start writing – it is time with myself that others do not notice.
The reason for time with oneself is so we can contemplate on what we are doing and what we need to do. Much of life is a reaction to events around us, so it is very important to create these extended periods when we can think deeply about the important rather than act on the urgent.
