On 22 September 2015, Jason Gay sent a tweet.
It read:
There's a guy in this coffee shop sitting at a table, not on his phone, not on a laptop, just drinking coffee, like a psychopath.
That simple observation has been retweeted 33 400 times and favourited 46 000 times.
Looks like Jason struck a chord with his followers.
Their replies - serious or half-joking - reflect the whole sentiment:
"If he was reading the newspaper, you would really have to be worried.
How many years ago would this have been considered "normal"? I'm guessing as many as 15?
Ask him what he's thinking about? Do people actually do that anymore?
Wow, imagine that. Pretty crazy, I'd stay away from him.
What a sicko... being present in the moment and not multitasking.
Spooky !!
How dare he?
Run!!!…lol
Who does that? He must be a creep.
Wow is that not normal?!
what a nutter... Keep your eye on him! Just don't make eye contact or speak!
WTF? Is that even allowed?!
People are crazy these days… that’s so 2001.
That's nothing-- I saw a teen at the store without a phone in her hand.
Did this guy just get out of prison? Did he just arrive in a time machine or UFO? I am having trouble picturing this behavior.
You should’ve taken his autograph... cause that guy is the reason coffee shops existed.
Call the authorities.
Someone better stop him before another psycho joins him & they actually start conversing!!
Time traveler from the year 1947.
Check for earbuds. Could be an audiobook.
Spooky yet spookier tweeting about it?
How "odd"! This "just drinking coffee in a coffee shop" thing! LOL!
You may see this person pull out a bunch of paper bound together on one end. He'll stare at it despite its lack of status updates.
Using the coffee shop wisely."
Those 25 words in Jason’s tweet captured an uncomfortable truth about our lives.
Most of us feel like the world we live in is continuing to move at a faster and faster pace.
Many of us don’t allow any time in our day to disconnect.
Disconnect from our work.
From social media.
From others.
There’s rarely a moment when we’re not reaching for our phone to check the latest updates.
Screen fatigue, anyone?
We react.
We fight fires.
We are on 24/7/365.
But here’s the problem.
While we are busy replying to ideas, comments and thoughts of others, we spent less and less time thinking our own thoughts.
We don’t know how to breathe, reflect and dig deeper to find creative solutions to the problems around us. (I riffed on UPSTREAM THINKING here)
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." - R. W. Emerson
It is high time for us to press pause, take a break from the screen and rethink things.
We must learn to do it on purpose.
No matter how much or how little time we have, if it’s not intentional, we miss the benefits.
In 2017, Rachael O’Meara, a Google custom support manager, realized that something was no longer right with the way she worked.
As she put it: “My ‘think about work’ switch was permanently on, and I couldn’t find the off switch.”
"72% of executives wouldn’t take additional vacation days even if they were unlimited, however, about four in 10 (39%) think output would actually increase if employees took more time off, according to the Creative Staffing Group. More than half of Americans feel “overworked or overwhelmed at least some of the time” and 70% say “they often dream of having a different job,” according to a recent study by the Families and Work Institute. It’s toxic because on the one hand, we’re refusing to vacation (or pause) from work, and of course, we’re going to be stressed out or unhappy. If we gave ourselves permission to step away from work more, the benefits of returning refreshed are well worth it and often lead to greater creativity and less stress.” -Rachael O'Meara, HBR April, 2017
Sounds so familiar, doesn’t it?
Like many of us who have loaded ourselves up with too much work for too long, she couldn’t stop thinking about her never-ending to-do list.
As a result of performance issues from burnout, she was forced to take a three-month leave of absence.
Reflecting on her life, she wrote a brilliant book Pause: Harnessing the Life-Changing Power of Giving Yourself a Break. (Love the cover, clear and smart)
It reminds us that burnout is almost inevitable because we live in an always-on society and are expected to keep up a rapid-fire pace that never really lets up.
By the way, last May, the WHO officially recognized burnout as a “syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”
At this time, when we work in isolation in our homes, there’s a new need for us to nurture ourselves and embrace Rachael's philosophy of the “power of the pause.”
Life is not a race. Take a restful pause and rebalance it.
Anyway, that’s my rant.
Hope you liked it.
Off for a cup of coffee now.
With no phone.
Look forward to making eye contact with you.
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