We spend more and more time with our faces glued to our devices and our eyes glued to a screen. We have less and less space for ourselves and the important things: key tasks, priorities… Fighting for get and block quality time It has become an indisputable ingredient in the recipe for smart work.

From the moment you wake up and your day is already full of emails, distractions, interruptions, meetings, social networks, blogs… tons of information and stimuli. In this crazy hamster wheel, we barely find time to disconnect and be alone with ourselves. Everything we do sends us in all directions and, at the same time, in none.

The Overwhelm of Overinformation

With all this stimulus coming from everywhere, finding quality time to think and do what really matters has become an increasingly difficult mission. It does not have to be like that… it can’t be like that if what you are looking for is to do more with less effort.

Think about this for a few seconds: imagine that your mind is like a garden. If you pour water on it all the time (information and stimuli), it will flood and you won’t be able to grow anything. But if you water just enough and let the soil absorb and process, you can grow beautiful flowers (meaningful ideas and tasks). And that’s where the “I’m not here now” Moments come into play: those moments of isolation and total disconnection during the day.

It is incredible to see how we ignore our mind, what we need to do and perform… let alone create and shine.

The Gifts of “I’m Not Here Now” Moments

By “moments” I mean scheduling your day to make room for this disconnection. Or holes, which is (of course) much better. And with “I’m not here now” I mean precisely that: isolate yourself, cut off communication with the outside world and have a time in which you are only with what is in front of you.

These daily and weekly “I’m not here now” Moments are a real treasure. I have been practicing and enjoying them for more than ten years. And each time more. They mainly give you three things:

• They give you time and concentration for the really important tasks. Those that bring you more value and results. Tasks that require all your energy, creativity, rhythm, attention and the best of you. This quality time is intended precisely for those tasks that leave a mark, those tasks that are not forgotten.
• They increase your pace and efficiency at work. During these times there are no distractions or interruptions, so you work at your peak performance. This is great when you’re finishing a project, have a deadline coming up, or suddenly get a task that needs to be done now.
• They give you time to think (something that is done less and less). This “quiet disconnection” helps thoughts and ideas emerge that are the spark for your actions. If you don’t reflect or talk to yourself, you are missing an essential part of your life.

These “I’m Not Here Now” Moments, whether they last 10 minutes or 2 hours, are worth much more than other work or personal moments. It is a higher quality time. The absence of noise, external stimuli and distractions makes you achieve more and better. It is a time in which you act or think more intensely. Twenty minutes of disconnection are like forty. An hour, like two. Therefore, it is worth fighting to get them. Today more than ever.

At first it doesn’t seem easy to get those moments, because our mind addicted to dopamine will be in charge of look for any excuse not to do it. But if you are really looking to manage your life differently and work intelligently, fighting and creating those “I’m not here now” Moments is something non-negotiable for you.