Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, and Neuroscience All Agree: Your Daily Routine Needs More ‘Non-time’
Both science and history tell us that getting your daily routine right is essential for success. No wonder the internet is full of admiring articles about the morning routines of famous people and lists of suggested habits to add to your daily schedule. Spend enough time with this kind of advice and it’s likely your day will end up crammed with worthy and beneficial activities, from gratitude practices to journaling exercises to nature walks.
Research shows all of these activities are good for you, but there is a catch to shoving ever more of them into your schedule — science is just as clear that you also need plenty of “non-time” in your routine. If you crowd your days with every healthy habit out there, you’re unlikely to get enough of it.
You don’t have enough non-time in your schedule.
First off, what is “non-time”? As The Art of the Impossible author and TED speaker Steven Kotler explained recently on the TED Ideas blog, non-time is basically a fancy word for quiet alone time when you are insulated from the world’s noise and demands.
“‘Non-time’ is my term for that vast stretch of emptiness between 4AM (when I start my morning writing session) and 7:30AM (when the…
