Day 14 Keep Your Goal in Mind

My brain likes to wander, so Osborn’s prescription for a morning dose of silence (meditation) and scribing (writing stuff) filled me with trepidation. FMRI studies show that meditation can increase blood flow to parts of the brain that are associated with attention and decisionmaking. Carry that focus into your working day, the logic goes, and you’ll end up being far more productive.

After several sceptical attempts at sitting quietly without fidgeting, I called Jeff Warren, co-author of Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics. “Yeah, it sucks,” he agreed. “Even for me, sitting meditation is a struggle.” Warren suggested that I try an app called

10% Happier, from meditation guru and sometime Men’s Health contributor Dan Harris. It just so happens that Warren himself guides some of the lessons.

During his 10-minute meditation, I sat cross-legged on my couch and tried to ignore my cat while Warren’s soothing baritone urged me to inhale and exhale. For my writing task, I tried a simple Osborn exercise to help me figure out what I really wanted from my life: divide a page into two columns and write “more of ” and “less of ” on either side. My “more ofs” included connection with friends and leisure time. My “less ofs” were weekend work and social media. By now, my mornings were starting to flow together, one task encouraging me to try another, and so on. Each day felt a little brighter.