Functioning Clearly

I'm beginning to see why monks cut themselves off from everything as much as possible.  I've been on vacation for the last week, and made sure that I did the things that had to get done as early on as possible, then did whatever else had to be done as it came up.  Much less mental clutter that way, nothing nattering away in the back my mind, calling for my attention.  I didn't manage to sustain the idea at 100%, but did much better than a working week, obviously.  I was able to test drive a lot of interesting and useful ideas, and still get a lot done at home.

So I want to see if I can keep some of this in place when I return to work tomorrow.  I want to try to take meditation breaks through the day, whether I think I have time or not, as they've helped me before.  The idea is to focus on my physical state at the time rather than getting caught up in the events of the day, bringing me back to clarity, so to speak.

I also want to try to approach my to-dos at home in the same spirit, if I can, and see whether or not this helps my day-to-day functioning.  I won't know how practical this is until I try it, and I've got to make sure I forgive myself when it slips and keep going, rather than giving up altogether.  Here it goes!