Shower thoughts
The definitive reason why you think better in the shower
Welcome, aspiring polyglot! In today’s world it is increasingly easy to spend less and less time distraction free. Between free entertainment and any piece of information you could possibly want at your fingertips, deciding to step away and put the black box down is evermore difficult. Perhaps that is one of the reasons people find they think so well in the shower. It’s the one place where you leave your phone behind.
No distractions
There are few opportunities throughout the day to truly take in a distraction free moment. When they arise, the default for most people is to avoid them. Whether this is a new habit or one that has been developing since childhood is largely irrelevant. What matters most is that, when you have the opportunity, you fight against the desire to reach for the next attention thief.
More and more, however, it seems people are seeking out these moments of "boredom” intentionally. It can be seen through different social media trends, ironically, but none so stark as travelling without headphones. While it started on long flights, I have spoken to quite a few people who intentionally sit in silence during extended car rides, myself included.
This silent time has produced more ideas for me than any amount of endlessly scrolling looking for inspiration. Noise is a constant in the vast majority of the world. I remember the first time a friend from Munich came to visit me in the US. We went out and climbed a mountain, as one does, and when we reached the top we sat for lunch. What happened next I still have trouble wrapping my head around.
As we sat there looking out over everything, he asked me what was happening. Confused, I asked for clarification and he said, “I can’t hear anything”. For a moment I didn’t really understand what he meant, then it hit me. He had never heard nothing before. He tried to explain the experience to me, but I was just in shock that it was the first time he had sat in silence.
Of course, a drummer in one of the largest cities in Europe is likely to spend very little time in silence, it was still something I had never even thought to consider. Unfortunately, I think this is the reality for a lot of people now, especially people who live in cities where there is almost always a constant drone of sound somewhere off in the background.
Filling your time
Worse yet is the desire to add noise to a silent background. Filling your time, and your mind, with more thoughts and sounds that are not from you. Even speaking to yourself aloud is a way to start thinking if the silence truly is that unbearable for you. But I believe most of the people who are constantly “filling their time” have just been trained into it over years or decades.
When boredom is perceived as a negative, it is only logical that people will try to avoid it. At least from the time I was born it has only gotten easier to find things on which you can spend your time. It’s interesting that in English we spend time. In many others you “pass” time. I prefer spend.
It gets to the reality of the situation which is that your time is finite. Spending it frivolously is infinitely worse than spending money frivolously. That is not to say that everything on which one spends time is not worthwhile, but it does mean you need to be intentional with where you spend yours.
I am no saint. My social media time is far higher than I would like it to be, but it is better than last year; and this month will be better than last month. Control what you can control. Reach for a book instead of your phone 1/10 times and you are already winning. Then aim for 2/10, then 3/10 and try to get to 1/2. Small steps that make a world of difference. It doesn’t just have to be books either.
Finding new times to think
Reaching for nothing can be just as, if not more, beneficial than reaching for a book. You will do the vast majority of your best thinking when you are bored. This is because thinking, at its core, is just a conversation between you and yourself. Something that is incredibly difficult to accomplish when one half is being consistently drowned out.
Much of my methodology is dependent upon the ability to think and speak with oneself. The only reason people fail at the exercises involving mental chess, which you can find detailed in this article:
Learning How to Think in a New Language
Welcome, aspiring polyglot! People have been asking recently if it is possible to really think in a new language. The view around here is, of course, not only can you think in a new language, if you truly want to be bilingual you must think in a new language. While there are several approaches to getting to that point, there is one thing that works better than most others.
is because they refuse to sit in silence for any significant period of time. That and the fact that, as we age, the opportunities for silent contemplation become fewer and further between. If that is the case, we must learn to find new times to think. There are many options and you have to do what works best for you.
Whether that is choosing to leave your phone whenever you enter the bathroom or turning off the radio in the car 3 days every week or waking up early before everyone else or staying up late after everyone has gone to sleep, whatever it is, finding new times to think is crucial; and it gets easier the more you do it.
Conclusion
I thought of this article idea in the shower. A propose, no? Since then, I have been trying to do this myself. Choosing to cook in silence instead of putting on a YouTube video. Driving in silence instead of listening to music. I’ve even gone as far as to work out with headphones on that are not playing anything. My brain hasn’t felt this free or creative in years. I highly recommend you try it yourself.
Breaking decades of programming is difficult. Especially considering you will become the “weird” one because you actually do not need distractions and, after all, what kind of weirdo is okay being bored? Difficult though it may be, you can rise to the challenge and accomplish difficult feats to be great. So get out and conquer something new and become great. I am rooting for you.
Requests
If you have anything you would like covered you can reach out to me on X, Instagram, or at odin@secondlanguagestrategies.com.
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