Summer Solstice for Business Owners
In case you haven’t noticed, keyboards and screens are not your friends. I mean that both literally and figuratively.
June 21 this year is the summer solstice (at least here in the northern hemisphere), which means it’s the longest day of sunlight in the entire year. When was the last time you celebrated the solstice?
Ancient humans set a lot of store by the solstices and equinoxes (which occur when the sun is directly overhead). They celebrated these markings of the year and were deeply attuned to what they meant.
And if you’re a business owner who feels overwhelmed, observing the solstice this year (not by working!) could help you more than you think.
Why stepping back from tech will improve productivity in the workplace
Brains are not computers. Although plenty of people use computers as mental models for brains, the reality is that the brain is much, much, MUCH more complex than any computer (or even LLM model).
Having said that, computers make a pretty good analogy for why American work culture is so terrible for working. We’re running 21st century software (work culture, American culture, computers and the internet in general) on hardware (our brains) that are hundreds of thousands of years old.
All brains adapt to their environment or they die. But the environment that our hardware is based on had no computers of any kind in it. For hundreds of thousands of years we didn’t have writing. Or chairs, or stores, or wells, much less computers.
The development of the human brain took place largely in small tribes that based their activities mostly by daylight. Various parts of the brain are involved in timekeeping, and all of these are tuned to the light (or lack thereof).
Daily rituals from sunup to sundown. Quarterly and yearly rituals involving the equinoxes and solstices: time to harvest and reap when the sunlight hours are longer, and a feast during the darkest, longest winter night both to celebrate the light returning and acknowledging that not everyone would be alive to see the next celebration.
Because our bodies and brains are so attuned to the sun, exposure or lack thereof tells our timekeeping systems whether it’s time to wake up or go to sleep. The recommendation for people that are depressed or stuck is to get morning light as soon as possible, because the blue light from the sun says Time to rise and shine! Similarly, when blue light is absent or low because it’s evening or night, that tells the body to get ready to sleep.
I’ve said it over and over again to keep your phone (and all screens if you can) out of your bedroom for this very reason. Screens emit blue light, tricking your body into thinking it’s wakey-wakey time. And no, there’s actually no research showing that blue light blockers actually work. Buy an alarm clock instead of relying on your phone.
One thing also to note is that human time doesn’t really run on seconds or fractions of a minute, except maybe for certain elite sports competitions. In our day to day life, trying to pay attention to each second would wear you out pretty quickly.
The fact that computers can run that fast has no bearing on how humans process or think about time. And trying to keep up with a computer is not just ridiculous but downright stupid. It’s not possible, and it will just make you feel even more overwhelmed.
Bring your speed back to human speed and see how much easier it makes everything.
Get back in touch with your humanity for better productivity
Look, I’m an introvert, so I understand the desire to have a keyboard or screen shield from the world. I get it. However, while our brains were taking in sunsets and solstices and how to hunt and gather enough food, they were also relying on other human brains to stay alive.
It’s highly unlikely that one human hunter took down large prey. Instead, there would have been several people involved. The whole village or tribe would be involved if a predator was trying to get into the living areas, and similarly more than one person would be gathering whatever flora they ate.
Being with other humans is hardwired into our brains. I’ve seen stats that say loneliness is worse than smoking as far as premature death goes. I’m not entirely sure how accurate that is, but we definitely need some connection with other humans for our mental wellbeing. Introverts tend to need fewer friends, but they still need some.
And no, messaging or emailing does not count. Remember, there were no keyboards or screens for hundreds of thousands of years. Human brains do not recognize words on a screen as human connection.
And the fact that you’ve been on screens your whole life (if that’s the case) does not change this fact. You’re still using the ancient hardware that we all have, which recognizes human faces, body language, and speech as connection. When you’re typing on a keyboard or tapping a screen, you might as well be pounding away on a rock as far as your brain’s concerned.
Start celebrating and operating at human speed
The insistence on moving faster and faster is completely disconnected from the way our brains and bodies behave. Yes, we can do it, because our brains are extremely adaptable.
But when your life is disconnected from the way that your body and brain are at their best, you end up feeling bad. Or stuck. Or burned out.
Trying to move at an accelerated speed probably contributes to the feelings you might have about being busy all day and not accomplishing anything. You’re not giving your brain time to close up loops – and your brain haaaaaaaaaaates an unclosed loop.
You’re darting from one activity to another, not giving yourself enough time to acclimate to one, and losing brain energy every time you switch from one type of activity to another. No wonder you’re so exhausted at the end of the day.
I’m pausing here because I don’t think people read this far into my articles. Maybe I’m wrong. But I’m about to find out!
If you’ve read this far, please type your favorite color in the comments. You can literally just type “red” or whatever. Please don’t give the game away! I’ll send you a free copy of my book. (And if you’ve already bought my book, message me and we’ll figure out a different prize for you.) Now back to the topic.
Trying to move at the speed of tech is making your life harder than it has to be. You don’t really have to celebrate the solstice if you don’t want to, but I highly encourage you to celebrate a season or a day or anything that gets you out from behind a screen and into nature. (Which human brains crave. Like Brawndo!)
Recap (tl;dr):
When you’re feeling overwhelmed and too busy, recalibrating to your human brain instead of trying a no-win war with computers will help you slow down and achieve your goals. Celebrate the solstice, the longest day of the year, with something outdoors. Your brain will love you for it, and a happy brain is a productive one.
Don’t know how else to make your brain happy? Let’s talk – the consultation is free. Click here to set up a time to chat.