How to Use ‘Monk Mode’ to Change Your Life in Just a Week

We tend to think of January as the month for new beginnings, but the science disagrees. In fact, according to many experts, September is the best month to start new habits or rethink your life. Thanks to at least a decade of training as kids, most of us still feel that back-to-school month is a time for a fresh start. Also missing in September are the winter blues, holiday dip, and credit card statements of January.

If you’re ready to take the experts’ advice and embark on a new journey this month, what’s the best path to making profound and lasting changes in your life? Changing your habits is never easy, but one blogger insists they’ve found an effective shortcut.

If you really want to change the dynamics of your life, take a week or two to limit distractions and delve deep into your new commitment by shifting into “monk mode.”

On his blog Raptitude, writer David Cain recently made it clear that he didn’t invent the concept of monk fashion.

“In the late 2000s, when I started this blog, there was a trend among young male entrepreneurs called ‘monk fashion’. Everyone had a different idea of ​​what the term meant, but generally it referred to a specific period of time – one week to three months or more – to focus with unusual intensity on certain important and fruitful pursuits while focusing on certain ones Avoiding distractions or engaging in self-destructive activities,” he explains.

So at its core, Monk Mode is like a challenge plus a detox, where you embark on a work rush and promise to steer clear of any bad habits that might get in your way.

Like #Girlboss cheerleading and hustle culture, the idea of ​​monk fashion fell out of favor in our late-capitalist, post-pandemic moment, when all the chatter — about trends like “The Great Resignation,” “Quiet Quitting,” and “Antiwork “– seems to be about doing less, not more. But Cain thinks the Monk Mode idea deserves another look.

Why? Cain is blunt: “It really works.”

He could see this even on short meditation retreats, where the practice progressed by leaps and bounds in just a few days. But he insists the benefits of Monk Mode extend beyond those who are literally trying to live like monks. Whether you want to dig deeper into a new hobby, start a new healthy behavior, or finally finish a big work project, Monk Mode can help you get it done.

Cain provides the example of how to get your limp self back in shape after a whole lot of pandemic laziness. “The traditional way of doing this is the resolution approach. They bang their fists on the table, maybe literally, and declare, ‘Enough is enough! From today I will train again and stop eating crap!’ Essentially, you are making a lifetime commitment to living with greater discipline and sacrifice, with nothing behind it but the emotional uplift you are feeling in that moment. You already know how that tends to work,” he writes.

It tends to go bad. However, shorter, more specific commitments work better. Committing to a week or two of “where you’ll be hitting the gym three times a week, cutting out foods with added sugar, and dutifully stretching every morning and night…is finite and doable and will no doubt put you on a much better path in the end.” , says Cain.When this monk mode ends, you can begin to develop a long-term plan from a place of confidence, forward momentum, and greater self-awareness.

Cain believes Monk Mode can work for many types of change, from completing an online course to writing a book proposal to launching a business idea. The idea is extremely adaptable, but any successful Monk Mode project must follow four core principles, he writes.

• A commitment to do specified amounts of specified types of work

• A commitment to abstaining from certain distractions or vices

• Certain rules for those two things

• A fixed start and end date

As long as you make the do’s and don’ts challenging but doable, you’re good to go.

I can understand why Cain is drawn to this particular approach to life transformation at the moment. It’s radical enough to resonate at a time when so many people are thinking, at a fundamental level, about how to live their lives. At the same time, the limited time use seems feasible, even if one still works with reduced post-pandemic drive and energy levels.