One of the best things for me about hunting season is not the thrill of the hunt or even trying to outwit a wild and cunning animal. Nope, it’s far less glamorous – It’s the quiet time I have alone with my thoughts.
I recall a story that I read as a boy about Fred Bear, the famous Archer. As he and his comrades were sitting around a dinner table after a day of hunting, one of his colleagues was beating himself up about missing a trophy deer earlier that day. Fred said,
“Bowhunting is not about successfully harvesting your game animal, but about taking the time to absorb and appreciate the entire experience.”
Fred Bear
That message transformed the way I looked at hunting and colors the way I do many activities.
As a bowhunter, it is not uncommon for me to sit in a ground blind or a tree stand from dawn to dusk with nothing but my thoughts for company or entertainment. However, rather than dread the solitude as some do (no names necessary – you know who you are), I relish the quiet time. In the quiet of my blind or tree stand, my mind races with many thoughts and ideas I would never be able to pay attention to at work. In fact, each day of hunting often generates a half dozen or more ideas that someday turn into blog posts and provides me the insight to pivot my business model.
My normal workday is much like many office workers, full of interruptions. emails, text messages, reminder notifications, meetings, checking social media, and of course all those robocalls that interrupt my train of thought repeatedly throughout the day. Each interruption takes me out of the zone.
When I worked as a course developer for a computer company, I can recall that my most productive days were the ones where I became completely enveloped in an effort and was only snapped out of the zone when a colleague wished me good night. On those days, I realized I never even stopped to go to the bathroom, much less eat lunch. Those days I went home feeling good that I was highly productive and made real progress on my project.
Distractions throughout the day kill your momentum and slow your productivity to a crawl. Mental switching costs occur each time you change your focus. There really is no such thing as multitasking. As humans, we focus on one thing, stop, and refocus on another task.
When I’m hunting, I’m almost always off the grid although I may have my trusty tablet, smartphone, or pencil and paper to record my thoughts. However, I mostly have uninterrupted quiet time to take stock of what is happening in my life and lots of time to be innovative in my thinking. The only mental switching that occurs is when a game animal breaks my stream of consciousness.
How can you schedule more quiet time away from distractions to be more productive and focus on your business rather than reacting to events?
