We dutifully plug our phones in every night, fuss over battery percentages, and panic at the sight of a red bar. Oddly enough, we’re far less careful with our own energy. The more we stay “plugged in,” the faster we drain. This week is about doing the unthinkable: setting the phone down and recharging the human holding it.

There was a time when you could only be reached by directly calling a house, a business or maybe a phone booth. If no one answered, the world didn’t end. It just… waited.

Road trips involved paper maps…those large, origami-like contraptions that know one could figure out how to fold back correctly. Getting lost was part of the adventure, and if you lived through it, you know it was part of just about every adventure. (Along with plenty of creative expletives between the parents when we’d get lost.)

Even boredom had a certain dignity. Waiting rooms meant leafing through battered magazines or staring at the wall tiles, not doomscrolling. Those quiet minutes were frustrating at the time but, in hindsight, they were an unintentional meditation practice.

Life had gaps. And in those gaps, we recharged without even trying.

Now, we carry a pocket-sized entertainment system at all times, terrified of feeling “unproductive” for even a minute. When is the last time you didn’t reach for your phone at a stoplight? We truly are terrible at being bored.

Boredom has been banished, and with it, some of our creativity and calm.

Maybe boredom wasn’t the enemy after all. Maybe it was the reset button we didn’t know we needed.

There was a time when boredom didn’t need an invitation. It simply arrived, usually somewhere inconvenient, like a dentist’s waiting room or a slow-moving checkout line.

But boredom has been hunted to near extinction by the Weapon of Mass Distraction we carry with us everywhere.

If we want quiet, we have to manufacture it. That means setting down the very gadget that promised to “save us time” and giving our brains a moment to remember what they’re for.

Silence isn’t going to schedule itself. So lets take the reins.

In this section every week, I’ll give step by step instructions on how to tackle one project. It could be something simple and small like this week’s assignment, or it could be more involved. Once you take on a few of these, you’ll learn some of the common strategies that can be applied to just about anything.

My hope for this newsletter is to make it feel like a mini-coaching session with me.

So now, it’s time to…

Your task is to create a space for boredom. Here is how to do it without drifting back to your phone.

Every device you own has to be plugged in to recharge. You are the opposite. The best thing you can do for yourself is to unplug.

Create the pause. Put the phone down, close the laptop, and let your mind wander. That is where the real energy comes from.

Hit reply and tell me how you plan to unplug this week.

I would love to hear your ideas and maybe even steal a few for myself.

Talk soon.