Thomas Edison was a terrible fisherman
Thomas Edison was a terrible fisherman. He spent an hour fishing each day but never caught any fish.
When asked why he was such a poor fisherman, he said "I never catch any fish because I never use any bait...
... because when you fish without bait, people don't bother you, and neither do the fish. It provides me my best time to think."
COVID / zoom packed calendar culture has killed the moments for thought - a subway commute, a train ride, a trip to pick up lunch.
My most successful clients schedule an hour, twice a week, to do nothing in the middle of the workday.
Your reptilian brain wants you to be "doing" all the time -- it creates an illusion of progress. The conscious brain needs time to integrate all of the data, step back, and see larger patterns.
Like a circus monkey, you can spend your day reacting to various stimuli, pinging back instant emails, and feel incredibly accomplished at the end of the day, but over the long term feeling like you never have time to think.
What would it be like for you to schedule an hour a week, during the day, to just do nothing... to try fishing with no bait?
