I wanted quiet. Not total silence. Just a little more room to think. My phone kept buzzing, my brain felt jumpy, and my to-do list looked like a junk drawer. So I tried modern monk mode for 30 days. Did it help? Yes. But not like a magic trick. Research suggests that implementing “monk mode” can significantly enhance productivity by fostering deep focus and minimizing distractions, yet most articles skip the messy middle.
For another viewpoint on the same 30-day commitment, you can skim this candid modern monk mode for 30 days breakdown.
What I Actually Did
My version wasn’t a cave or a robe. It was normal life, with rules that made it calm. I still worked. I still cooked. I just cut the noise.
Here were my rules:
- No social media or news till noon. I used Freedom on my laptop and the Forest app on my phone.
- Two deep work blocks each weekday. Ninety minutes each. Timer cube on my desk.
- One hour of movement daily—walks, light runs, or yoga. No excuses.
- Simple food. Coffee, eggs, rice and beans, roasted carrots, apples, water.
- Ten minutes of meditation in the morning. I used the Waking Up app.
- Kindle Paperwhite at night. Phone sleeps in the kitchen.
- Two social nights a week so I wouldn’t go weird and hide from people.
For an extra boost of accountability, I also explored Monkify, which offers distraction-free challenges that echo these monk-mode principles.
I told my friends. I told my boss. I even put a sticky note on the front door: “No phone past 9.”
Week 1: My Brain Was Loud
Day 1, I kept reaching for my phone like it was gum. Pure habit. I’d open the fridge and think about Instagram. Not food. That was a little sad.
The first deep work block felt shaky. I stared at my screen, then I cleaned my keyboard with a Q-tip. Then I wrote 712 words. Not great, not bad.
I made a big pot of bean soup and listened to rain in my headphones. Cheap foam earplugs actually worked better than my fancy ones. You know what? The dishes were done by 8.
But I also felt edgy. I missed the scroll. I missed laughing at dumb videos. I even missed reading the comments. Weird, I know.
Week 2: The Click
On Tuesday, something clicked. I woke up at 6:20, made coffee, and started a 90-minute block with my kitchen timer. I finished a UX case study I’d been pushing off for three months. I cleaned 1,347 emails and hit inbox zero. I also ran a slow 5K. My legs were noodles, but my head felt clear.
Small things got better:
- I stopped losing my keys because I set them in the same bowl.
- I read 28 pages a night instead of none. The book was about habits. Fitting.
- I slept by 10:15. Not perfect, but close.
I did slip once. Thursday night, I watched “just one” video. Then it was three. Then it was midnight. The next morning, my focus felt soggy. Lesson learned: guard the night.
The highs and hiccups reminded me of this honest monk mode rules, slip-ups, and real results recap.
Week 3: The Boring Gold
This week tasted like oatmeal: plain, but solid. My work blocks went fast. I drafted two client proposals, no panic. I made a simple budget in Notion and found I’d saved $126 by not buying random snacks and little trinkets online. Funny how quiet saves money.
I walked during lunch and noticed the bakery smell two blocks away. I saw a neighbor’s new teal bike. Stuff I’d usually miss. My mom called me a “pleasant robot,” which made me laugh. I wasn’t a robot. I was just steady.
But I got lonely on Friday. I almost texted three people to hang out, then felt stuck because it wasn’t one of my social nights. That’s when the rule felt too hard. So I bent it. I went out for tacos. I didn’t fall apart. A rule that makes you brittle isn’t a good rule.
Week 4: Clean Edges
The last week felt simple. My mornings had clean edges. Coffee. Sit. Write. Walk. Work. Eat. Repeat. I wasn’t chasing pings. I hit my deadlines without drama. I even repaired a wobbly chair that had been annoying me for a year. Glue, clamp, done.
I also noticed something else: time got longer. Not more hours. Just less rush. I could finish one thing before I started another. That alone felt worth it.
What Worked For Me
- Focus went way up. Two deep blocks beat eight messy hours. I did more, with less stress.
- Sleep felt softer. No phone in bed helped. Kindle for the win.
- Mood got steady. Not giddy. Not flat. Just steady.
- Money surprise. Fewer snacks, fewer buys. Quiet saves cash.
- Body felt better. Walks and easy runs were enough. No gym guilt.
If you like side-by-side pros and cons, this 30-day monk mode challenge overview lays them out clearly.
What Didn’t
- Social costs. I felt out of the loop. Memes moved on without me.
- Perfection pressure. If I messed up once, I wanted to toss the whole plan. Not helpful.
- Boredom visits. Some nights were slow and, well, dull. That’s real. You sit with it.
- Work creep. When you get good at deep work, people ask for more. Set limits early.
When boredom crept in, I occasionally caught myself hovering over apps that promised quick thrills and easy attention. If you find your mind drifting the same way, jumping into a spontaneous sex chat with girls can provide instant, playful connection and real-time conversation to shake off the monotony without leaving your couch.
For evenings when messaging isn’t enough and you’re craving an in-person vibe, skimming the curated local listings on Backpage Rahway can surface nearby meetups and nightlife options—helping you scratch the social itch and then slip right back into focus the next morning.
Seasoned practitioners also note that it's important to be aware of potential challenges associated with monk mode, such as social isolation and the risk of burnout, and they recommend pairing intense focus with regular breaks and social check-ins.
A friend who went “full” monk and documented both the help and the hurt echoes many of these cons in this frank write-up.
Real Tools I Used
- Freedom on Mac to block sites
- Forest for phone focus (the little tree dying if I quit still hurts my heart)
- Timer cube for 90-minute blocks
- Kindle Paperwhite for reading
- Waking Up for 10-minute sits
- Cheap foam earplugs from the drugstore
- A plain spiral notebook as a “brain dump” pad
A Tiny Schedule That Stuck
- 6:30 — Coffee, 10-minute sit
- 7:00 — Deep Work Block 1
- 8:45 — Walk and quick stretch
- 9:30 — Deep Work Block 2
- 11:15 — Admin stuff, email, light tasks
- Lunch — Rice and beans, apple
- Afternoon — Meetings, errands, one chore
- Night — Phone in kitchen, Kindle in bed
Pushing the experiment to 45 days also yields interesting patterns, as spelled out in this 45-day follow-up.
It looks boring. It felt good.
Who I’d Recommend It To
- You juggle too many tabs and feel fried by noon.
- You have a big deadline and need calm speed.
- You want better sleep without a full life reboot.
Maybe hold off if you’re a new parent, a caregiver, or you’re in a season that’s heavy. You need support, not stricter walls.
Want a bigger spoiler before you commit? Someone else already tried monk mode so you don’t have to — but you might want to — as captured in this story.
My Quick Ratings
- Focus: 5/5
- Sleep: 4/5
- Mood: 4/5 (after week