Find Your Place Where Time Disappears

I'm writing this article at 1am. The night sort of got away from me as I was at the casino.

At one point during the night, I took my watch off and put it in my bag. Yes, I wear an over-the-shoulder European-style man bag at the casino so I can easily access my phone, my cash, and obviously my player's card to earn those points.

I took off my watch because I didn't want to know what time it was. I didn't care. I didn't need to know. I had nowhere to be, and no reason to know if it was 7pm, 9pm or midnight.

I spend so much of my day looking at the clock, preparing for the next meeting, the next call, the next event. I live and die by the clock every single day, minute by minute, so that for once, it feels so good to not give a shit about what time it is, who needs me, and what I need to be ready for. It's a shift I recommend everyone consider in how they unplug, where they unplug, and why.

For me, I just happen to enjoy unplugging at the casino, but that isn't for everyone.

The important part isn't necessarily where you go. It's whether you've found a place where your brain finally stops keeping score of everything else happening in your life. Maybe that's the gym. Maybe it's a long drive. Maybe it's sitting on your back deck with a drink. Maybe it's playing video games, golfing, fishing, walking the dog, or disappearing into a movie for two hours. The location matters a lot less than the feeling you get when you're there.

I think too many of us confuse unplugging with simply stopping work. Those aren't always the same thing. You can shut your laptop at 5pm and spend the next four hours checking Slack, thinking about tomorrow's meetings, worrying about a client, or replaying some conversation you had with your boss. Your body might be home, but your brain is still sitting in the office.

The real trick is finding something that forces your brain to go somewhere else for a while. Something that demands enough of your attention that you can't simultaneously think about the forecast, the board meeting, the sales number, the email you forgot to send, or whatever other shit is bouncing around in your head. That's what the casino does for me. When I'm playing, I'm present. I'm watching the machine. I'm talking to whoever I'm with. I'm thinking about absolutely nothing useful, which is sort of the entire point.

There should be moments in your life where nobody can get anything from you. No advice. No decision. No answer. No quick favor. No "Hey, do you have five minutes?" You're just unavailable for a bit, mentally more than physically, and I think that's incredibly healthy when so much of our lives are built around being constantly reachable.

I've gotten better about recognizing when I need that reset too. Sometimes you can feel yourself getting short with people, losing patience, staring at the same email for ten minutes, or just feeling mentally fried. That's usually not a sign that you need to grind harder. Sometimes it means you need to get the hell away from everything for a few hours and come back with a brain that isn't running at 3% battery.

Your version of that escape might look completely different than mine, and it probably should. The only real requirement is that it gives you some separation from the parts of your life that constantly demand something from you. Find the place where you stop checking the clock. Find the activity where you forget to look at your phone. Find the thing that makes two hours disappear without you realizing it.

Find the place where you stop checking the clock. Find the activity where you forget to look at your phone.

I eventually put my watch back on tonight and realized it was ridiculously late, which is why I'm sitting here writing this at 1am. But I don't regret taking it off. For a few hours, I wasn't thinking about tomorrow, yesterday, work, meetings, responsibilities, or what time I needed to be anywhere. I was just there. Sometimes that little bit of nothing is exactly what you need to have something left for everything else.