I moved into a Zen Buddhist monastery, and it was the best thing I ever did for my productivity

I spent a month at a monastery this winter, "not working". But the effect it had after the fact changed everything: my happiness while working, my overall productivity, and yes, our revenue.

I know this group is focused on ways to be more productive; this is a post about how time spent actively being "not productive" is actually so integral — there's so much "work on the side" or invisible processing that really goes into being a productive worker. The way we approach productivity itself matters, and sometimes we need to spend some time not actively "producing" in order to actually find optimal productivity.

First, I need to acknowledge that I’m incredibly lucky: I’m able to be building a SaaS product (SlidesWith.com, an interactive presentation tool) that doesn't require too much maintenance to just keep running day to day, and I have a wonderfully generous cofounder who was willing to step in for me to manage our business while I was away. (Thank you, @mason)

Questions I often get: This is such a drastic step, was something really wrong? What did you want to get out of this? You're not particularly spiritual, what possessed you to go? Answers: I’m a driven person, I can work frantically and reactionaryily. I always had to be “being productive”. This was effective, but exhausting. I knew I needed to repair my relationship with work. I knew I needed to spend time focusing on this, or it would keep getting pushed aside and aside. So, I decided to enforce the focus. I moved into a Buddhist cloister!

The monastery itself was a beautiful slate stone building nestled in a valley of the Catskill mountains. We were up at 4am to sit in silent meditation for 2 hours, then the day itself was full of community work (I did a lot of farming and manure-slinging! it was great!), followed by another 2 hours of sitting, then straight to bed to do it again the next day.

The things I learned when I gave myself the time to stop, get quiet, and really look — intensely personal, valuable things — cracked open the foundation of my understanding about why I’m working, and how I want to work each day. Then it rebuilt it from the ground up with deep insights about the value of life, the supremacy of the present moment’s experience, and the impermanence of the very goals I was seeking. It was, in short — super relaxing. I realized I didn't have to strive or strain the way I was doing. I could relax, but still get my work done.

Your mileage of course may vary, and a residency at a monastery is obviously not a path for everyone. I’m not even really recommending you do it. What I am recommending is stopping and taking a look at all the work that goes into just getting to work, and how each moment of your working unfolds. I was working out of fear and anxiety and a driving force to not be idle. Now instead, more than ever, I’m working because of the joy of invention, the fun of learning, and the potential promise of a wonderful life. It’s a fundamental shift for me, from stick to carrot.

And oh my god, am I happier. And our bottom line at the company shows this in real time — we increased our monthly revenue by almost double in the past months. But this is kind of just one of the happy "side" benefits of the real payoff: I’m on a path filled with happiness, each day. I’m enjoying my work, every day. And nothing changed about my external situation — all it took was stopping, looking, noticing, realizing, allowing, appreciating, and returning to this process each day.

So if you’re finding yourself burnt out / whipping yourself to get more done / beating yourself up for not doing enough (like me)... maybe a sitting meditation practice can help.