Every morning I enjoy Train Mode. Each work day, I wait for a bus. Which I take to a train. Where I ride underground for about 35 minutes until I arrive at work. Then I rise zombie-like from beneath the ground and emerge to the light.
Each morning my mind races with all the things I could be, should be, might be doing. And then I don’t. I do a single thing.
Catch yourself about to multitask today. Stop, breath, and go back to what your were originally doing.— Garrick van Buren (@garrickvanburen) May 13, 2014
When I step into a train, my phone becomes an island. I turn off all wireless communications. My phone is adrift in a sea of silence. No email. No social. No interaction.
I open Kindle. I read. I enjoy the blissful silence and focus of words on a page.
This past week I’ve read with my phone in one hand and a paper notebook in the other. I’ve written thoughts and pondered questions. I’ve interacted with the book in a real way.
Not passively reading, but reading to remember. Reading to know. I’ve ignored the rest of the world and for that short train ride, it’s just me, the words, and my thoughts. And it gets to happen again at day’s end. Where I wait for a train. To a bus. To home. All without the phone making a peep. Unless I put on music to drown out the song of public transit.
And it’s blissful.
