Jul 15, 2015
I
don’t know who first came up with this concept, but I saw as part
of list of way to get more done, on the LifeHacker website.
Later
this month, I’m going to be flying to Ft. Worth Texas to give a
quick presentation at Podcast Movement.
As
much as I need to get my notes together and get myself prepped, I
honestly was thinking “I can always do that on the plane.”
It’s
amazing. When I think about what i have coming up over the
next few weeks, the most focused time I can see is the time I’ll
have while stuck in that tiny metal tube flying for 3-4
hours.
But,
why can’t I have that same experience without spending hundreds of
dollars and being squished up against the big guy next to me and
having the kid behind me yanking on my chair?
Sounds
so great… Haha
But I
can.
The Strangers Around You
When
you’re inside that giant tube, you’re surrounded… even pressed up
against all sorts of people. Probably more people than you
have in your office.
But
you’re not being pestered like you are at work.
People
leave you alone… you may get a hello, or an excuse me, but
there’s no long conversation about how your weekend went… for the
most part.
This
is why it’s sometimes more productive to head over to a Starbucks
or another public place with Wi-Fi.
I
recently had to get my iPhone camera fixed and since they said it
would only take a couple of hours, I didn’t really have time to go
home and then return. So I went and got an iced tea and sat
at the local Starbucks.
A
couple of hours of free wi-fi and great passion fruit iced tea and
I had a couple of show outlines written. It was great.
Just
like in the plane, I was surrounded by people but I wasn’t wasting
my productivity time talking with them about nothing of any real
importance. It was great.
This
is a wonderful way to simulate that airplane isolation in a public
place.
Disconnected From Down There
Of
course, today, for a few dollars you can still have all the
distractions you normally have, but not long ago, being on a plane
meant no internet, no email, no phone calls even.
Nothing.
As
soon as that cabin door closes, you put your phone in “airplane
mode” and pull out the in flight magazine.
I’m
more a SkyMall kind of guy. But, even that, doesn’t leave
much in the way of distractions.
Obviously, it’s incredibly easy to simulate this situation down
here as well. Just put that phone on Airplane mode and you
will NOT be distracted.
Turn
off your wi-fi on your laptop too.
If you
need help doing this, you can always install a tool called
Anti-Social.
It
doesn’t block the entire internet, just the sites that distract you
the most. Probably social media sites.
Anti-Social was originally created for Mac but it’s available on
Windows machines now too. It’s $15 but it could mean a HUGE
boost in income if you used it to be more productive.
You
could always just grab an old computer that doesn’t have a built in
wifi card and use it only for writing. You don’t need a lot
of power to use a text editor. It’s just there to get the
words from your head to the screen in front of you.
The World Went On
The
weird thing about flying is, when we land and turn on our phone, by
and large, the world went on without us.
You
may have some “urgent” emails that came in but strangely, some of
them have already been addressed before you had a chance to come in
and “save the day."
Even
when we’re not in the air, we need to remind ourselves.. people can
and WILL survive without you. Your adult kids will figure out
how to get the tire fixed. Your spouse will figure out how to
find where you put the giant frying pan. They can survive.
They’ll do ok.
If you
dare put your phone into airplane mode, you’ll force this.
But you can also just let them know… “Listen, for the next 3
hours, pretend I’m on a plane and you can’t reach me.”
That
way, if there’s a REAL emergency, you’re available, but for 99% of
the stuff going on, you’re not being interupted.
TRY IT
TODAY
Go for
an Airplane Day.