“Learn to be silent. Let you quiet mind listen and absorb.”, Pythagoras
We live in the age of distraction. Calls, email, chats, notifications, reminders, and other technical solutions are design to attract our attention. Another way of looking at this is that these technologies take our attention away from whatever we are doing at the moment.
How many emails, calls, notifications, etc. do you get every day. I counted mine. One normal work day, I received 5 calls, 33 Teams messages, 49 Slack messages, 22 text messages, 4 Teams calls, and 124 emails. 237 work related distractions. This means that I simply kept getting distracted all day. What did I accomplish during the day. No work other than communication. The work on deliverables had to be done after office time or before office time next day. Sadly this the typical workday of most office workers.
Imagine if Einstein and Newton were distracted by digital technology all the time. Would we have the three laws of motion and the theory of relativity? Most likely not. The both spent countless hours thinking and contemplating in silence.
Suppose you have to complete your final paper. What kind of environment do you create for yourself to finish writing you paper. You probably switch off or silence your phone. You probably avoid checking emails and messages. Otherwise you will not get the work done or hand-in a low quality paper.
Thinking requires silence and no distractions. If you want to progress in life, give yourself time to think. Schedule time for yourself to think, uninterrupted and undistracted. Progress requires deep thinking. Deep thinking requires silence.