There’s a particular frame of time I’m sure you have experienced. You have a big presentation later today, or you’re travelling for a week, and suddenly you have a mental clarity that’s often missing from daily routines.
When you know you’ll be away, pending tasks become crystal clear. You remember to have someone feed the pets, pack that side project you’ve been avoiding for weeks, grab the book you’ve been meaning to read. And work ideas flow more smoothly. Perhaps it’s the mild stress of travel, or that big meeting or the thought of addressing that huge or daunting audience that sharpens your awareness. Your brain cuts through the fog.
What’s interesting is this can happen even when the triggering event itself is mundane. A trip you don’t really need to take. A talk you weren’t obligated to give. The clarity comes anyway, activated by the mere presence of a deadline or departure.
Which raises a bigger question in my mind: could you trigger this artificially? You can’t fool yourself, so manually adding “Big Presentation” to your calendar won’t do as your mind will know it’s fake. But what if someone else did it? If a personal assistant could add ghost entries you’d believe were real, at least initially. Just enough friction to activate that mental state without an actual obligation. That would be cool, wouldn’t it? A strange hack, but sometimes maybe that’s what it takes to access clarity on demand.
When was the last time you felt that kind of clarity before a big gig or trip? And have you had any thoughts or ideas on how you might artificially trigger it?