For the next 10 days I’ll be living in total reclusion

by | Jun 25, 2013 | Productivity Experiments

Takeaway: I’m going to spend the next ten days in total reclusion and then write about how my productivity is affected.

Estimated Reading Time: 4:42 for the video, 59s for the text.

Update: I’ve completed this experiment, and here are all of my updates and findings!

Here are other videos and articles I’ve posted for this project so far:

Intro

For the next ten days I’m shutting myself off from the outside world and living in total reclusion. I’m not answering emails, texts, tweets, phone calls, or anything, really. I’m simply spending all of my time in a single room, with only a bed, food, water, and a computer, and seeing what happens.

Every day I’m going to make a video blog, and I will also write an article or two with how my experiment is going. It’s going to be… interesting, to say the least.

Above is a 4:41 introduction to the experiment.1

The rules

  • I cannot interact with anyone at all, and I must spend all of my time in reclusion.
  • I am allowed to leave the room for a maximum of ten minutes, twice every day. I cannot see or interact with anyone during that time.

What I’m allowed

  • Access to: a bed, laptop, the Internet, water, and food.
  • The ability to post links to new blog articles on Twitter and LinkedIn (but not interact with people on those sites).
  • One hand-written letter per day to my housemates.

I can’t wait to see how this unfolds. I’ll be posting other daily updates right on the front page of A Year of Productivity.


  1. Mad props to my good friend Zack Lovatt for assembling the intro/closing animations for me! Zack has done some amazing work if you have time to check it out. 

Written by Chris Bailey

Chris Bailey has written hundreds of articles on the subject of productivity and is the author of three books: How to Calm Your Mind, Hyperfocus, and The Productivity Project. His books have been published in more than 40 languages. Chris writes about productivity on this site and speaks to organizations around the globe on how they can become more productive without hating the process.

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