Monkify

I kept hearing about Hamza’s Monk Mode. People said it helps you focus and stop wasting time. That promise isn't just anecdotal; a recent piece in Forbes details how going into “monk mode” can make professionals markedly more productive. I was tired of my phone running my day. So I tried it for 30 days. I didn’t copy every rule he’s ever shared, but I followed the core idea: fewer distractions, more deep work, and better habits. If you want a deeper dive into another person's 30-day experience, check out this in-depth Monk Mode case study.

You know what? It helped. But it also got weird at times. Let me explain.

My Simple Rules (and the ones I broke once)

I wrote them in Notion and checked them off every day:

• 2 hours of deep work in the morning (no phone, no email)
• 10,000 steps a day
• Lift weights 3x a week (Mon/Wed/Fri)
• 10 minutes of meditation (I used Calm)
• No social media until after 6 p.m.
• No alcohol, no porn
• Sleep by 10:30 p.m., wake at 6:30 a.m.
• One hour of reading each night (paper book)

I slipped on Day 8. I watched 40 minutes of YouTube at lunch and felt gross. I logged it anyway. Didn’t quit.

What My Days Looked Like

• 6:30 a.m. — Up. Water. Sunlight at the window. Three slow breaths.
• 6:45 a.m. — Meditation (10 minutes). Honestly, I fidgeted. But by week two, I could sit still.
• 7:00 a.m. — Coffee and journaling. Three lines only: What matters? What can wait? What’s one win?
• 7:30–9:30 a.m. — Deep work. I used the Forest app and Cold Turkey to block sites.
• 10:00 a.m. — Walk. I listened to nothing half the time. Birds are loud when you let them be.
• Afternoon — Calls, email, gym on M/W/F. On off-days, I did a short yoga flow.
• 6:00 p.m. — Social media window (30 minutes). Timer on my phone.
• 9:30 p.m. — Read. Stretch. Bed by 10:30 p.m.

It felt strict. But I needed strict.

Real Results I Saw

• Work: I wrote 12 short articles for clients and outlined 3 new ones. Before this, I kept half-starting drafts and quitting.
• Screen time: from 5 hours 12 minutes a day to 2 hours 19 minutes by the last week. iPhone Screen Time doesn’t lie.
• Steps: 10k+ on 26 out of 30 days. Worst day was 4,212 (rain and a bad mood).
• Lifts: My squat went from 85 lbs to 105 lbs. Small jump, big smile.
• Sleep: Average 7 hours 45 minutes. I used a Garmin watch to track it. Not perfect, but better.
• Mood: Less buzzing in my head by week three. Not calm like a spa. More like steady.

The Good Stuff

• Deep work blocks felt like magic. Two focused hours beat six messy ones. I wrote faster. Fewer typos too.
• The 10k steps reset my brain. I came back kinder. Emails didn’t sting as much.
• No social till 6 p.m. saved my mornings. The world felt quieter, even if it wasn’t.
• Light rules, big effect: 10 minutes of meditation actually helped me pause before I reacted. That tiny gap? Gold.

Multiple studies echo my own experience; the World Economic Forum notes that structured “monk mode” periods can significantly boost cognitive performance and productivity.

The Hard Parts

• Social life got weird. My friend Mia had a birthday brunch. I left early to keep my bedtime. I felt rude and also proud. Mixed bag.

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• All-or-nothing thinking hit me. Miss one thing and my brain said, “Welp, ruined.” That’s not true, but it felt true.
• Cold showers? I tried three. Hated them. I took warm showers and stood in the cold blast for 20 seconds. Close enough.
• By week three, I got bored. Same walk. Same oatmeal. I wanted spice. I added cinnamon and took a new route. Tiny changes helped.

Real Moments That Stuck

• Day 5: I stared at Instagram for 10 minutes without opening it. That little red badge is loud. I turned off badges after that.
• Day 14: I deleted Twitter from my home screen. Not forever. Just off the front page. My thumb kept reaching for the empty space. Kind of spooky.
• Day 19: I almost cried on a walk. Not sad. Just full. The trees were nice. Maybe I needed a minute.
• Day 23: Client sent a “Can we hop on a quick call?” email at 7:05 a.m. I didn’t reply until 10:30. Nothing broke. The world kept spinning.

Tools That Helped (and one that didn’t)

• Apps: Forest for focus, Cold Turkey for blocking sites, Calm for meditation, Notion for tracking, Apple Notes for quick brain dumps.
• Gear: Garmin watch for steps and sleep, cheap earplugs for deep work, a kitchen timer on my desk.
• Didn’t help: Habit tracking stickers. Cute, but I forgot to use them.
• Bonus: If you want a single place to track all of this, Monkify offers a free Monk Mode dashboard that mirrors these habits.

Who Should Try It

• You struggle with scrolling before work.
• You have a creative project and keep stalling.
• You’re okay saying “no” for a month.

Who might hate it? If your job needs lots of quick replies all day, or if you live with roommates who love late-night noise, this can feel like swimming upstream.

My Tweaks So It Stuck

I didn’t keep all the rules after 30 days. But I kept three:

• No social media before lunch.
• Two deep work blocks most weekdays.
• Walk every day, even 15 minutes.

I also kept the reading. One chapter. If I read more, cool. If not, still a win.

What I Wish I Knew Before

• Make a “glitch plan.” If you slip, what’s your next move? Mine was simple: drink water, take a 10-minute walk, start a 25-minute focus block. No drama.
• Plan social time on the calendar. I set Friday dinner as “free.” It kept me from feeling like a hermit.
• Don’t chase perfect. Chase steady. Steady holds.

Final Take

Hamza’s Monk Mode worked for me because it cut noise. It’s strict, yes, but not harsh when you treat it like practice. Some days I felt calm. Some days I felt stiff and silly. Both were fine.

I’d give it an 8 out of 10 for focus and mood. In winter, it’s easier. In summer, good luck skipping late nights on patios. But even then, one rule can change a day.

Would I do another full month? Yep—before a big project or when my brain feels messy. And I’ll keep the walks. Always the walks.

I’m Kayla, and I actually did this. I went full monk mode for 90 days. It wasn’t perfect. It was weird. It worked. And yes, I learned where it breaks.
If you’d like the blow-by-blow account—with daily logs, screen-time charts, and all the gritty details—you can read the full write-up here: my complete 90-day monk-mode breakdown.

Before we dive in, you can check out a helpful overview from Forbes on how “monk mode” can supercharge productivity if you want more context on why the concept has gotten so popular.

I’ll share how I got in, what rules I used, my real days, and where I messed up. I’ll also share a simple plan you can try this week. No fluff. Just what happened.

What “Monk Mode” Meant for Me

For me, monk mode means this: one big goal, fewer choices, quiet days. Fewer pings, more work. Think: a clean desk, a small set of rules, and a clear clock. Not a cave. Not a boot camp. More like a season.

I started in March, when the rain made it easier to stay inside. I wanted to ship my UX portfolio and write three case studies. That was my North Star.

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The Rules I Set (And Kept Most Days)

I wrote five rules on a sticky note and stuck it on my door.

• One goal only: UX portfolio. No new side quests.
• Phone stays in the kitchen from 8 a.m. to noon.
• Social plans: one night a week, max.
• No alcohol, no news scroll, no YouTube rabbit holes.
• Sleep by 10:30 p.m., wake at 6:30 a.m. every day.

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Tools that helped:

• Freedom app to block sites on my laptop.
• Forest for 45-minute focus blocks.
• Focusmate for body-double sessions.
• Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones for noise.
• A cheap kitchen timer. Loud, but honest.

You know what? The timer mattered more than the fancy stuff. If you crave an all-in-one focus cockpit, check out Monkify—its combo of site blocking and streak tracking would have saved me from installing three separate apps.

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How I Entered Monk Mode (Day 0 to Day 7)

Day 0, a Sunday: I cleared my desk. I closed 23 browser tabs. I put my phone in a shoebox and left the box on top of the fridge. Silly, but it worked. I told two friends and my mom, “I’m going quiet for a while. If I ghost you, I’m not mad. I’m focused.”

Day 1, I wanted to quit by 10 a.m. Muscle memory is strong. I kept reaching for my phone, like a twitch. Freedom blocked Instagram. I got mad at an app. Then I laughed. Then I opened Figma and wrote a boring header. Small wins count.

Day 3, I hit my first wall. Rain. Low mood. I wanted ramen and Netflix. I used Focusmate for two hours. Just seeing a stranger on my screen kept me honest. I shipped one wireframe. Then I took a 20-minute walk, no music, just rain. I came back calmer. My brain felt like a snowplow had cleared a lane.

Day 7, I went to a coffee shop with foam earplugs and my Sony cans over them. Double quiet. I wrote a case study outline in one sit. I also skipped brunch. My friend teased me, but she got it. I told her, “Give me 12 Sundays. I’ll buy pancakes after.”

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My Daily Routine (Most Days, Not All)

• 6:30 a.m. Wake, stretch, tea. No phone.
• 7:00 a.m. 10-minute walk. I look at trees. Sounds corny. It helps.
• 7:30 a.m. Plan three tasks on an index card. Just three.
• 8:00 a.m. Deep work block (Forest timer, 45/15).
• 10:00 a.m. Snack. Stand. Refill water.
• 10:15 a.m. Deep work block.
• Noon Lunch. Phone check for 20 minutes.
• 12:30 p.m. Admin or light tasks. Email. Figma tidy.
• 2:00 p.m. Focusmate session if I’m dragging.
• 3:00 p.m. One more 45-minute push.
• 4:00 p.m. Walk, light lift, or yoga. I used Down Dog app.
• 6:30 p.m. Dinner. Read on my Kindle Paperwhite.
• 9:30 p.m. Shower, stretch, notes for tomorrow.
• 10:30 p.m. Lights out.

Did I nail this daily? Nope. But hitting 80% still moved the needle.

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Real Wins (Numbers, So You Know I’m Not Guessing)

• Wrote 31,400 words across three UX case studies.
• Cut screen time by 41% per week (iOS report).
• Shipped my portfolio by week 11.
• Slept an average of 7 hours 28 minutes (Oura ring).
• Said no to 9 invites. Said yes to 4. Felt rude once. Survived.

Work felt cleaner. Fewer tabs. Less noise. My brain stopped buzzing at night. I even saved money, because I wasn’t out late buying mocktails and fries.

A recent World Economic Forum piece highlights how this kind of focused “monk mode” approach is spreading as a data-backed way to boost productivity, so it’s not just me seeing these gains.

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The Hard Parts (Let’s Be Honest)

• Loneliness sneaks in. By week 4, I missed my people. I felt flat on two nights each week.
• Rigid rules break you. One day I binged three hours of YouTube. After, I felt gross. I reset with a walk and one page in my notebook: What happened? What do I need? Usually it was food or a nap.
• Tight shoulders. Sitting that long hurts. A lacrosse ball under my shoulder blade saved me.
• Partner friction. My spouse wanted movie nights. I blocked Friday for us. That helped a lot.

I thought monk mode needed zero fun. That was wrong. It needed small, planned fun.

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How To Enter Monk Mode (My Simple Starter Plan)

Curious about a condensed trial run before you commit to the full season? Here’s a look at how Hamza tackled a 30-day monk-mode sprint: Hamza’s 30-day experiment.

1. Pick one clear goal for 30 to 90 days.

• “Finish my portfolio.”
• “Write 20,000 words.”
• “Apply to 30 roles.”

2. Set five rules you can keep.

• Phone home base, sleep, social limit, site blocks, one focus block each morning.

3. Create a start and stop ritual.

• Start: tea, timer, headphones, one index card.
• Stop: write tomorrow’s three tasks, close the laptop, put phone away.

4. Tell two people.

• Text: “I’m in monk mode for 6 weeks. If I’m slow to reply, it’s on purpose.”

5. Use two tools max.

• Example: Freedom + a kitchen timer. More tools can be a trap.

6. Do a weekly review on Sunday.

• What worked? What broke? What one tweak will I try next week?

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Odd Little Tricks That Worked For Me

• Same hoodie and jeans each morning. Fewer choices, less fuss.
• One mug I love. Sounds silly. Feels grounding.
• A cinnamon candle when I start. Brain smells, brain knows.
• Rule of Three: only three tasks per day. Everything else is bonus.
• Put snacks on a tray at 9:55 a.m. If it’s ready, I don’t go roam.

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A Quick Case Study From My Week 6

Tuesday. I hit a snag. A recruiter wanted a new layout by Thursday. I felt the panic rise. I wrote one line on a sticky note

Quick outline:

• What I mean by “full monk mode”
• My rules and tools
• A real day, hour by hour
• Wins that surprised me
• Where it went sideways
• Fixes I made on the fly
• Who should try it (and who shouldn’t)
• My verdict and fast-start tips

So… what is “full monk mode,” really?

It’s a season of focus. No fluff. Fewer choices. You put your head down and work. I did it for 30 days in January. Then I tried a shorter, 10-day run in August. Two very different months, which told me a lot.

I went in for work reasons. Big deadlines. Client handoffs. I also just felt scattered. My brain felt like a dozen tabs, all dinging at once. You know what? I needed quiet. Implementing “monk mode” can significantly enhance productivity by fostering deep focus and minimizing distractions, so I was eager to see if the hype matched reality.

For the full day-by-day journal, numbers, and reflections from that 30-day sprint, you can skim the expanded breakdown over here.

My rules (simple, strict, human)

• Phone in a KSafe time-lock box from 7:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., and again 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
• Freedom app blocking social, news, and shopping sites all day.
• Two 90-minute deep-work blocks. No meetings inside them.
• Gym or long walk daily. Rain counts.
• No alcohol. Simple food. Meal prep on Sunday (big pot of turkey chili, rice, chopped veggies).
• Lights out by 10:30 p.m. No “just one more” episode.
• Three texts allowed per day to family. That’s it.
• Read 20 pages at night. Kindle Paperwhite only.

Was it intense? Yes. But I kept it plain and boring, which helped.

If you want to see how my approach stacks up against Hamza’s stricter version of the challenge, I road-tested his exact checklist for a month and shared every win and wobble right here.

Tools I used (and why they mattered)

• KSafe time-lock container — It kept my phone out of my hand. I can’t “just check one thing” if it’s locked away.
• Freedom app — Blocks sites across my MacBook and iPhone. No loopholes.
• Forest app — I grew silly little trees while I worked. If I touched my phone, the tree died. It sounds goofy. It works.
• Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones + brown noise playlist on Spotify — Instant quiet.
• TimeCube timer on my desk — One click. It starts. No fiddling.
• Notion — I used a simple board: Today / Doing / Done. Drag, done.
• Google Calendar Focus mode — I held space for the deep blocks so people saw “busy.”

I know some folks use nothing and just “have willpower.” I’m not that person. Hardware helped.

Pro tip: if you want a ready-made template for tracking your own monk-mode sprint, check out the free planner at Monkify.

A real day looked like this

• 6:15 a.m. — Wake, stretch, black tea, quick journal. One page. Messy is fine.
• 7:30 a.m. — Phone in the box. Freedom on. Email closed.
• 8:00–9:30 — Deep Work Block 1. I wrote a 12-page brand deck for a retail client.
• 9:30–10:00 — Walk loop around the block, no podcast. Just air.
• 10:00–11:30 — Deep Work Block 2. Built slides and voice notes for the deck.
• 11:30–12:00 — Admin: invoices in Wave, two emails, one Slack check.
• 12:00–12:40 — Lunch. Chili, rice, apple. Not fancy. It hits.
• 12:40–2:00 — Gym. Light lift. Sauna four minutes. Quick shower.
• 2:00–3:30 — Edits with XM5s on. Brown noise. I said no to a surprise “quick call.” I’m proud of that.
• 3:30–5:00 — Project review. Uploaded deck. Left clear notes.
• 5:00 — Phone out of the box. Two texts to my sister, one to my mom. That’s my three.
• 7:00 — Roast veggies, salmon, seltzer. Nothing wild.
• 9:30 — Kindle: I read Show Your Work. I took two tiny notes in the margin.
• 10:15 — Lights out.

Not every day looked this clean, but most did.

Wins that surprised me

• Work moved fast. I finished a 40-page brand deck in 9 days. My normal is two weeks.
• Fewer mistakes. I stopped catching typos after sending. I caught them before.
• Less “context switching.” That’s a fancy way to say I didn’t hop tasks. My brain felt calmer.
• Sleep got deeper. My Garmin showed more deep sleep. And I woke up less puffy.
• Screen time dropped by 3 hours a day. That felt… free.
• Money saved. No late-night scrolling meant no “oh cute sweater” buys.
• Energy. Afternoon slumps didn’t hit as hard. A walk fixed most dips.
• I read three books: Atomic Habits, Four Thousand Weeks, and Show Your Work. I kept one idea from each.

I also shipped two newsletters and cleaned my junk drawer. Tiny, but it felt huge.

Where it went sideways

Still, I knew going in that the practice could surface feelings of isolation and the risk of burnout, so I kept an eye on my mood and energy throughout the month.

• Loneliness. By week two, I missed casual noise. I even missed bad memes.
• Social bumps. I skipped a friend’s trivia night. She understood, but it still stung.
• Perfection trap. When a rule snapped, like when I answered a text at 11 a.m., I felt like I “failed.” That’s not helpful.
• Rebound risk. On day 31, I almost binged on Reels. I caught myself, but still.
• Summer round was harder. August is full of BBQ invites. Saying no felt rude and joyless.
• Food got boring. Chili is great. Four days in a row? I was grumpy.

I also got a low headache the first week. Less caffeine, more water helped.

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If what you’re itching for instead is an offline, face-to-face coffee or a low-stakes walk in the park—but you still refuse to let endless swiping torch your focus—Forest Park locals can jump into Backpage Forest Park for a concise, location-based classifieds feed that surfaces nearby same-day meetups and lets you scratch the social itch without reopening the attention-guzzling mainstream apps.

Fixes I made mid-way (so it felt human)

• Social “office hours.” I added 30 minutes at 5:30 p.m. for voice memos with friends. It kept ties warm.
• One flex window a week. Saturday 3–7 p.m. I said yes to people. I didn’t spiral.
• Rule phrasing: “Guardrails, not laws.” If I slipped, I reset on the next block, not next week.
• Finish line ritual. On day 30, I booked ramen with my sister. Small reward, big mood.
• “Safe list” people. My partner, my mom, my editor. If they called, I picked up.
• Food swaps. Chili two days, then sheet-pan chicken, then pasta with greens. Simple, not sad.

These tweaks saved it. I wish I had used them from day one.

Who should try it

• You have a clear, near deadline. A thesis. A launch. A job hunt.
• Your work needs deep thinking: writing, code, design, research.
• You feel scattered and want a reset. Not forever. A month.

Who shouldn’t:

• You’re a caregiver on call, or your job is urgent by nature.
• You’re in a heavy social season: weddings, travel, holidays.
• You’re healing from burnout. This can feel too sharp.

Curious about stretching the practice to an entire quarter? A detailed 90-day case study— complete with the exact habits, emotions, and tweaks—lives [in this deep dive](https://www.monk

You know what? I went quiet for a month. I called it monk mode. No party, no scrolling, no fluff. Just work, sleep, food, and walks. I wanted a reset. I also wanted proof I could finish a big thing without drama.
I kept a running diary of every rule and stumble in a separate post—My Rules, My Slip-Ups, My Real Results—if you want the raw notes.

I’m a real person, not a robot. So this wasn’t cute or clean. But it worked. Mostly.

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Why I Did It (and What I Wanted)

Quick backstory. I was stuck on a big project. I had a design case study half done. My inbox felt like a junk drawer. I was sleeping weird hours. So I set a simple plan:

• Finish the case study and ship it.
• Write four new newsletter posts.
• Fix my sleep and my snack habit.
• Feel calm again. Not perfect. Calm.

I chose January because it’s cold and quiet where I live. Fewer BBQ invites. More tea.

Implementing “monk mode” can significantly enhance productivity by fostering deep focus and minimizing distractions; dedicating uninterrupted time to specific tasks is a proven way to sharpen concentration and efficiency, which is exactly what I was after.

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My Monk Mode Rules (Simple, but strict-ish)

I taped these on my fridge. Not cute, just a sheet with a dry marker line through each day.

• Phone stays in the kitchen. No phone in bed, ever.
• Social apps blocked 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. (I used Freedom and Screen Time.)
• Deep work block: 6:30–9:00 a.m., headphones on, email closed.
• Walk 8k–10k steps; no “I’ll do it later.”
• Food: no sugar snacks on weekdays; water before coffee.
• Sleep: lights out by 10:30 p.m., even if the show is spicy.
• No alcohol. I made one tiny exception for a birthday. I’ll tell you.
• News only once a day, at 12:30 p.m., five minutes, timer on.
• Journal three lines in the morning. Just three. No poetry hour.
• Read 20 minutes at night (paper book). I kept a cheap paperback on my pillow.
• One “green zone” social call per day. 15 minutes max. Timer again.

It looks harsh. It felt clean.

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How I Set It Up

I kept it basic. No fancy stack.

• Calendar: Google Calendar with a pink block for Deep Work and a blue block for Walk.
• Notes: Notion for my tasks, with one page named “Do Today.” Three tasks only.
• Music: Spotify “Deep Focus” mix. I also like rain sounds. Honest.
• Timer: A $9 kitchen timer, because my phone is a gremlin.
• Website block: Freedom. I blocked “everything fun” until 8 p.m.

I also told two close friends. They got it. One teased me, then joined for a week. We texted “done” after the morning block, like gym buddies who don’t lift.
If you prefer an all-in-one dashboard to keep those systems tidy, Monkify bundles calendars, habit trackers, and focus timers in one clean interface.
For a harsher, full-send variant, I studied this write-up—Full Monk Mode for 30 Days: It Helped, It Hurt—and borrowed a few guardrails.

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A Real Day From Week 2

• 6:00 a.m. Wake, water, stretch ten minutes. Real stretch, not pretend.
• 6:30–9:00 a.m. Deep work. I cleaned my layout and wrote the problem statement.
• 9:15 a.m. Eggs and toast. I wanted waffles. I did not have waffles. Great sadness.
• 10:00 a.m. Walk 30 minutes. Cold air, red cheeks, brain reset.
• 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. Admin: invoices, email zero, calendar shuffle.
• 12:30 p.m. News, five minutes. Timer beep. Close.
• 1:00–3:00 p.m. Light work: polish copy, Figma tweaks.
• 5:30 p.m. Quick dinner. Chicken, rice, broccoli. Hot sauce saves lives.
• 8:15 p.m. Read paper book, eyes heavy.
• 10:20 p.m. Lights out. Phone still in the kitchen like a banished raccoon.

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The Wins (Real, Counted, not fluffy)

• I finished the case study. Shipped it. Sent it with two job apps.
• I wrote four newsletter posts. Two got nice replies. One got a “meh,” which was fair.
• My sleep hit 7.5 hours on average. I used my watch to check.
• Steps? 27 out of 30 days over 8k. Three days I was grumpy. Still moved.
• Screen time dropped from 4h 12m to 1h 35m. My thumb twitched less. That felt odd, then great.
• Sugar cravings fell hard by week 3. The first week was a headache. Then quiet.

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Where It Hurt (and how I bent the rules)

• The birthday thing: I had two small glasses of wine. I had cake. I felt fine. I reset the next morning. No shame spiral.
• I broke the “no phone in bed” rule one night after a rough day. Scrolled for 18 minutes. Yes, I checked. Felt gross. Put the phone back in the kitchen like it stole something.
• Day 10 was lonely. I missed noise. I added the 15-minute call rule the next day. Huge help.
• Work got flat on Day 17. No spark. I took a long walk, changed the font (ha), and came back. It wasn’t magic, but it moved.

However, it's important to be aware of potential challenges associated with monk mode, such as social isolation and the risk of burnout; building in regular breaks, keeping social touchpoints, and balancing work with life are key to avoiding those pitfalls.

I wondered if the pain fades or compounds over a longer haul; this 90-day monk mode deep dive convinced me it’s a different beast after week six.

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Surprising Stuff No One Told Me

• The house felt louder. The fridge hum. The heater click. It was nice, like background rain.
• Food tasted better. Plain yogurt with a drizzle of honey tasted like dessert from a nice cafe.
• I drank more tea than seems legal. Peppermint at night. Black tea at 2 p.m. Kept me steady.

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Tiny Tactics That Saved Me

• The “two-minute rule”: if it takes under two minutes, do it now. Dishes. Email yes/no. Shoe rack chaos. Done.
• A “quit time” alarm at 5:30 p.m. If I didn’t stop, I’d keep going and then I’d stare at the ceiling at 1 a.m.
• A whiteboard by the door: “Move. Make. Rest.” Cheesy? Maybe. It worked.

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Who Should Try Monk Mode?

• If you have a clear target. A paper, a demo, a job hunt, a book chapter. Vague goals get dusty.
• If you’re noisy inside. Too many tabs open in your mind? This clears space.
• If your phone is your boss. You need a break from that little glowing boss.

Who should not? If you’re in a heavy care role, or your job needs live chat all day, strict blocks can fight you. Try a lighter plan.

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Start Small If You’re Nervous

Try 7 days with three rules:

• Phone sleeps in the kitchen.
• One deep work block early.
• Walk every day.

Then add more if you like the feel.
Hamza’s popular spin trims the rules to the essentials—Hamza's Monk Mode, 30 Days Later—and shows how flexible the concept can be.

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What I Kept After the 30 Days

I did not keep everything. That would be fake. But I kept the big three:

• Phone out of the bedroom.
• Morning deep work before email.
• Daily walk, rain or shine.

I brought back weekend pizza and a movie. Balance is a thing, even for stubborn folks like me.

Another slice of balance was letting my social life breathe again. After a month of near-monastic focus, I felt ready to meet new faces offline instead of just scrolling. If you’re feeling the same post-monk itch and happen to be interested in connecting with vibrant Latina singles nearby, [FuckLocal’s Latina meetup

I did a full 30 days of monk mode this spring. No half steps. I set rules, made a plan, and told two friends so I wouldn’t bail. Did it fix my life? No. Did it help a lot? Yes. Weird, right?

Why I Tried It

I felt scattered. My screen time was 4 hours a day. My writing was stuck. I was tired but also wired. My coffee got cold while I scrolled. You know what? I was just fed up.

I’d heard about monk mode from a video by Iman Gadzhi and a thread on Reddit. I also devoured this detailed breakdown of a 30-day monk mode sprint that laid out what worked, what flopped, and what actually stuck. For a more formal perspective, Forbes offers a concise overview of how to be highly productive by going into ‘monk mode’ that nudged me to test the concept myself.

My Rules (Simple but strict)

• Wake up at 5:45 a.m. (even on weekends)
• No social media (I deleted Instagram and TikTok)
• 60 minutes of deep work each morning before email
• Gym 4 days a week (20 minutes lifting, 20 minutes walking)
• No booze, no candy, no chips
• Read 30 minutes a night (Kindle only, blue light off)
• Journal 5 lines daily (Notion template)
• One treat meal on Saturday

That’s it. Not easy. But clear.

Tools That Saved Me (and my sanity)

• Freedom app to block sites from 6 a.m. to noon
• Forest timer for my 25/5 work blocks
• Notion for habit tracking and a short daily log
• Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones (noise off, lo-fi on)
• A cheap flip phone on Sundays (yep, I went there)
• Streaks app for the little wins

And because I wanted everything in one clean dashboard, I signed up for Monkify, which bundles habit tracking, focus timers, and community check-ins into a single “digital dojo” for monk mode.

Week 1: Ouch

Day 1, I got a sugar headache. Day 2, I almost opened Instagram six times out of muscle memory. My thumb just moved. I felt bored. Also twitchy. But I slept 45 minutes more on average. That part was nice. Reading about someone else’s slip-ups during their first week kept me from feeling like a failure.

A small win: I wrote 927 words on a blog post. My normal was 300. I used a Pomodoro timer and hid my phone in the pantry like a guilty snack.

Week 2: The first bright spot

I found a groove. I did my best work from 6:15 to 7:30 a.m. The house was quiet. My cat sat on the keyboard twice, which felt personal, but I kept going.

By Friday:

• Screen time: 1 hour, 12 minutes a day
• Words written: 4,600 for the week
• Steps: 8,300 a day (thanks to “fake walks” while I called my mom)

I read two chapters of Atomic Habits at night. I slept faster. No scrolling, no rabbit holes, no drama.

Week 3: The slump

I hit a wall on Day 17. Cravings came back. I wanted fries. And gossip. And everything fast and loud. I missed memes.

I almost quit after a long work call and a rainy Monday. I grabbed a Coke Zero, put on a baseball game in the background, and told myself, “You can be strict tomorrow.” Then I stopped. I took a 10-minute slow walk with no phone. That reset me. Not magic—just quiet. One writer’s honest take on how full monk mode both helped and hurt during his own 30-day push reminded me that the midpoint dip is normal.

I wasn’t perfect that week. But I didn’t break the big rules.

Week 4: The proof

The last stretch felt…clean. Not easy, but steady. I shipped a client report three days early. I cut a draft that wasn’t working, then wrote a better one in one morning. I even noticed the coffee tasted like chocolate again. Funny detail, but true.

I had a wedding on Saturday. I stuck to my treat meal. I danced. I drank sparkling water with lime. Zero shame.

Real Results (no fluff)

• Writing: from 300 words/day to 900-1,100
• Screen time: from 4h 12m to 1h 05m
• Sleep: +47 minutes a night, fewer 2 a.m. wake-ups
• Mood: fewer spikes, fewer slumps
• Gym: 14/16 planned sessions
• Reading: finished two books (Atomic Habits and Range)

Seeing the compounding gains described by someone who extended the experiment to 90 days makes me curious about a longer run.

What Surprised Me

• Boredom is loud. It passes at the 12-minute mark.
• Mornings are gold, but only if I set them up the night before. Clothes out, notebook open, mug ready.
• Saying “no” to small stuff made the big work feel lighter.
• I missed memes less than I missed texting my sister. So I added short, real calls. That helped.

What I’d Change Next Time

• I’d keep social on Sundays only, not zero. I like baby photos.
• I’d add a “fun hour” twice a week. Lego, guitar, or baking. Something with hands, not screens.
• I’d make a “bad day plan” card. Short nap, slow walk, easy meal, early bed. No thinking.

One temptation I didn't see coming was the urge for a little late-night flirting once the loneliness crept in. Scheduling that impulse kept it from hijacking my focus; dedicating a single 30-minute window on Saturday to browse an adult dating site like MeetNFuck offered a controlled outlet for social energy without wrecking the rest of my monk-mode rules. The platform’s straightforward, no-small-talk approach helps you connect quickly with nearby singles, so you can scratch the itch and then return to your goals.

For nights when you want something even more local and low-key, exploring a regional classifieds option such as the Backpage Meriden listings can put you in touch with people right in your neighborhood, letting you satisfy your social side without straying far from your monk-mode framework.

Who Should Try It

• You’re stuck and tired of your own excuses.
• You want to write, code, study, or create, and you keep getting pulled away.
• You like clear rules for a short burst.

Wider research, including the World Economic Forum’s exploration of what “monk mode” is and how it can boost your productivity, suggests that these focused sprints can benefit most knowledge workers, especially when adapted to individual constraints.

If you’re a fan of Hamza’s approach, this candid recap of following his exact monk mode rules for 30 days will give you a clear picture of what to expect.

If your job needs social media all day, try soft rules: block apps in the early morning, then allow them during work hours only. Keep your one treat window.

The Hard Parts

• It can feel lonely. Plan check-ins with a friend.
• The world keeps buzzing around you. FOMO knocks.
• Perfection thinking shows up. Don’t buy it. Win the day, not the story.

The Good Parts

• Time opens up. It’s wild.
• Your brain quiets. Not silent, but soft.
• You remember what you actually like. For me: early light, warm mugs, clean sentences.

My Bottom Line

I won’t live in monk mode forever. That’s not the point. But a tight 30-day cycle? I’d do it again. I kept two habits: morning deep work and no phone after 9 p.m. Those alone paid for the whole thing.

Would I recommend it? Yes—if you set simple rules, use real tools, and give yourself one small treat. Go strict, not harsh. Leave room for life. And if your coffee tastes like chocolate again, that’s your sign it’s working.

I’m Kayla. I write, I test gear, and I chase a preschooler who thinks socks are optional. Last winter, my brain felt noisy. Pings, pings, more pings. I kept checking three apps to avoid one hard task. You know what? I got tired of my own excuses.
Reading another freelancer’s brutally honest recap of her own monk-mode test nudged me over the edge.

So I started monk mode. Think quiet rules for life and work. Short season. Strong focus. Fewer choices. More doing. It’s like a reset, not a forever thing. My grandma called it “a week of hush” when she quit TV before exams. Same vibe.
That sharper focus echoes findings highlighted by the World Economic Forum showing that brief, intentional bouts of “monk mode” can dramatically lift a knowledge worker’s output.

What Went Great

• Fewer decisions. Same breakfast. Same start time. My brain sighed.
• Real progress. I finished two drafts and a photo set in five days. That used to take eight.
  Forbes even profiles executives who report similar leaps in efficiency when they temporarily enter “monk mode,” compressing complex projects into half the usual time.
• Better sleep. No late scroll meant easier mornings.
• Mood. Calmer. Not zen master calm, but less snappy, more steady.

During monk mode I muted every social server, including the spicy group chats that used to light up my phone at 2 a.m. If you want to audit your own potential distractions before going dark, consider peeking at a bustling example like the Discord communities dedicated to sexting—seeing how quickly real-time notifications pile up there can help you decide which channels to snooze so your focus experiment actually sticks.

The same self-audit applies to location-based classified sites; a quick look at the adult listings on Backpage Merrillville illustrates just how easy it is to tumble down an intimate-services rabbit hole—visiting the page once lets you determine if it belongs on your “block” list, protecting your limited attention during a monk-mode sprint.

You know what? I didn’t plan to love this book. I picked it up on a tired Sunday. My head was full of screens and half-done tasks. The cover said “Monk Mode,” and I rolled my eyes a bit. But I read it anyway. Then I tried it. And things changed. Not magic. But real.

Why I Reached For It

I work from home, and my phone chirps like a needy bird. I write reviews, answer emails, edit drafts, then somehow end up scrolling videos of tiny cakes and pet raccoons. Cute, yes. Helpful, no. Research suggests that intentionally limiting distractions in this way can dramatically boost cognitive performance (the World Economic Forum recently broke down why so-called “monk mode” can supercharge deep work).

On the worst procrastination days, I even caught myself hovering over the browser bar, ready to click into local classified hubs just to kill time. If curiosity ever leads you down a similar rabbit hole, the detailed listings on Backpage Mount Pleasant show exactly how quickly you can lose 30 minutes scrolling random ads—checking it once makes the distraction trap crystal-clear so you’ll be extra motivated to silence those tabs when it’s time for deep work.

The book promised focus. Simple rules. A set time. Less noise. I wanted that. I also wanted my brain back.

What The Book Teaches (In Plain Talk)

The book’s idea is simple:

• Pick a short window. The book says 21, 30, or 90 days.
• Set clear daily rules. The rules must be easy to check.
• Do your key work first. No phone. No news. No fluff.
• Move your body. Sleep well. Eat like a grown-up.
• Track it every day. Miss a day? Note it, then keep going.

It’s direct. No fluff. A bit firm, but not mean. I liked that it felt human. It even said, “You will slip. Get back on.”

My Rules (Stolen From The Book, Tweaked By Me)

I chose 45 days. That felt strong but not wild. Here were my rules:

• Two deep work blocks, 60 minutes each, before noon. I used a cheap white kitchen timer.
• Phone in the kitchen drawer from 8 a.m. to noon. Ringer off. No exceptions.
• No social apps on weekdays. I deleted two and used Freedom to block the rest.
• Walk after lunch. Twenty minutes. No headphones the first ten, then music if I want.
• Bed by 10:30 p.m., screens off by 10. Not perfect, but close.
• One page of notes at night: wins, misses, mood.

Small note: I kept coffee. The book nudged me to cut it. I tried. My head hurt like a drum. So I kept it, just one cup.

Real Life: Week-by-Week

• Days 1–3: My thumb kept reaching for my phone. The drawer sat there like a dare. I wrote on sticky notes instead. I finished a draft I’d pushed for 2 weeks. My brain felt foggy, but proud.
• Day 5: I timed a 60-minute block and wrote 1,100 words. Not perfect words, but real ones. I used Notion to mark “done.” That little green check felt like a candy.
• Day 9: I messed up. Opened Instagram “just for a sec.” Lost 40 minutes to smoothie videos. I wrote “Noon slip. Back on” in my notebook and did a second walk. It helped.
• Day 12: I did a call at 8 a.m. by mistake. It broke my focus. The book says protect mornings like a guard dog. I moved my call to 1 p.m. the next week. That one change saved me.
• Day 18: Mini crisis. Family stuff. My morning block fell apart. I did a shorter 30-minute block at 7 p.m. It wasn’t pretty, but I kept the chain.
• Day 24: I hit flow. No music. Just the tapping of keys and a peach candle my sister gave me. Funny what the nose can do.
• Day 31: I took notes by hand. My page had coffee rings and doodles. It felt like proof. Real life on paper.
• Day 37: I tried a “walk with a question.” I asked, “What is the headline?” By the fifth block, the title for a client piece popped up. I said it out loud like a weirdo. It stuck.
• Day 45: Final day. I didn’t want it to end. That shocked me.

What Worked For Me

• Two morning blocks beat one long block. I’m human. I tire. A small break plus water did more than a third coffee.
• Phone in the drawer was the best rule. Out of sight, out of mind. Simple, strong.
• Night notes kept me honest. I wrote “Tired but steady” more than once.
• Walks gave me ideas. Silence first, then music. I used the Forest app on some days to stay off my phone.
• Clear start time. Mine was 8 a.m. sharp. A timer, not a vibe.

Sometimes, though, you still need to keep a chat window open for urgent pings from a client or teammate. For those moments, the ultra-minimal Instant Chat Black interface keeps the conversation accessible while its dark, notification-light setup stays out of your peripheral vision so you can stick to deep work.

What Didn’t Land (Or Needed Tweaks)

• The “no coffee” push. Bold ask. Not for me. One cup was fine.
• The book favored long fasts and cold showers. I tried both. I felt itchy and mad. I swapped in plain water and warm showers. Still got results.
• The tone got a bit strict in parts. Like I was in a boot camp. I liked the tough love—but I had to be kind to myself too.

Little Things That Helped More Than I Thought

• A silly rule: no phone before sunlight touched the kitchen floor. I live in a small place. That moment is clear.
• A glass of water on my desk when I sat down. Sounds basic. Works.
• One song on loop for focus days. “Weightless” by Marconi Union. Quiet, airy, steady.
• Friday “admin sprint.” Bills, email, tiny tasks. I kept it to 45 minutes so it wouldn’t spread.

Need proof that seemingly tiny tweaks can make or break a challenge? Check out this 30-day Monk Mode breakdown of what worked, flopped, and ultimately stuck for another perspective.

A Quick Digression (That Still Matters)

I bought new socks. Stay with me. My old ones slid in my sneakers on walks, and I’d cut the walk short. New socks fixed that. It’s funny—small frictions slow the whole plan. The book talks about this in a more formal way. Remove friction. Make good choices easy. Socks count.

How My Work Changed

• I wrote more first drafts. Messy, but done.
• Edits felt calmer. My brain wasn’t split in ten.
• I said “no” to morning calls. That tiny boundary paid rent.
• I made fewer typos. Less rush.
• I felt less “jangly” by 3 p.m. That’s my word for it. Jangly.

It turns out my experience lines up with what Forbes found about ‘monk mode’ leading to measurable productivity jumps.

Who Should Read This

• You juggle too much and hate your phone a little.
• Your mornings vanish, and you don’t know where they go.
• You want rules that fit real life, not a monastery.
• You like checklists and also like mercy.

If you need soft structure with clear steps, this book hits the mark. If you want hacks without effort, you’ll be mad at it. It asks for sweat. Not a ton, but some.
Bonus resource: the checklists over at Monkify pair perfectly with Monk Mode if you need an extra nudge.

Tips I Wish I Had On Day 1

• Set your start time and guard it.
• Put your phone far away, not face down. Distance matters.
• Keep a physical log. Pens don’t ping.
• Plan meals the night before if you can. A simple egg wrap beat my snack chaos.
• Be nice to yourself on bad days. Start small, keep going.

The Bottom Line

I thought I’d hate Monk Mode. I didn’t. I loved the quiet. I loved the clear lines. The book gave me a simple frame I could bend to fit my life. I worked better, slept better, and felt more steady. Not perfect. Just better.

Score: 4.5 out of 5. I’ll do another 30-day run next month ([here’s how my first 30-day experiment played out](

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

I’m Kayla, and I actually used “monk mode on” for a full month. Not a cute weekend. A month. I wanted quiet, real work time, and fewer “oops, where did my day go?” moments. You know what? I got both—most days. If you want the play-by-play of the experiment that sparked my own, check out this original 30-day monk-mode log that convinced me to hit the switch.

Why I even tried this

I hit a wall in March. My screen time was over 5 hours a day. My drafts folder looked sad. Even mainstream business outlets have caught on; a recent Forbes piece argues that embracing a deliberate “monk-mode” block is one of the fastest ways to reclaim productive hours. So I made a simple rule for weekdays: flip monk mode on, make my thing, then come up for air. Sounds strict. It was. But simple beats messy. Turns out I’m not alone—the creator of the “modern monk mode” 30-day sprint hit the same wall before diving in.

What “monk mode on” looked like for me

I didn’t buy a fancy tool with a monk logo. I built a little kit. One tap, and I was “in.”

• iPhone Focus: Work mode on from 8:30 am to noon, again 2 to 4 pm
• Freedom app: blocked Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, X, and news sites
• Cold Turkey (Mac): blocked Slack and Gmail during sessions
• Flow timer: 50 minutes on, 10 minutes off; 4 to 5 rounds a day
• Notion: one “Daily Board” to track my three big tasks
• Brown noise on Spotify; Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones
• Calls from Favorites still broke through (kid’s school, partner, mom)

I also kept my phone in the kitchen. If I wanted it, I had to stand up. Funny how lazy saves your focus.

A day in monk mode, the messy truth

• Day 3: Wrote 1,150 words for a product guide. Sent it by 10:42 am. I even cut a fluff paragraph I kind of loved. Ouch. Worth it.
• Day 9: Edited 14 photos in Lightroom for a smartwatch review. Batch presets, then tiny tweaks. My wrist hurt, but the spread looked clean.
• Day 12: Built a tiny Google Apps Script to tag emails. It saved me about 15 minutes a day. Boring task, big relief.
• Day 18: Read 40 pages of Deep Work. Yes, on brand. Yes, I smirked.
• Day 22: Slipped. Opened Instagram during a break and lost 26 minutes to cake videos. I know. Cake. I reset, then chewed spearmint gum like it was a job. Turns out my stumble was textbook—this 30-day recap logged almost the exact same mid-month Instagram face-plant.

Little note: I kept hot tea next to me. Cinnamon or mint. Warm cup, quiet brain. It’s small, but it helps.

What actually worked

• One switch, less drama. My Shortcut opened Notion, started the timer, and turned on Focus. Fewer taps, fewer excuses.
• My brain learned the cue. When headphones went on and brown noise started, I settled. Like muscle memory, but for attention.
• Fewer apps around meant faster starts. No “quick peek” at Slack. No peek turns into no spiral.
• The 50/10 rhythm let me breathe. Stretch. Fill my water. Blink at trees. Then back in.

If you’d prefer a quick entertainment-value summary, this skeptic-turned-believer breaks down the highs and lows in plain English. And for a side-by-side “what worked, what flopped” comparison, this 30-day challenge post lines up eerily close to my own graph.

What bugged me

• Meetings fought the flow. I had one mix-up and joined late because Slack was blocked and I missed a calendar ping. My bad, but still annoying.
• It felt stiff some days. On Day 20, I wanted a loose, messy day. Monk mode felt like a tight shirt. I took a reset afternoon.
• Creative work can need chaos. I write better outlines in quiet. But headlines? I weirdly like a little noise. So I stopped forcing it.
• Battery drain with noise plus timer plus big files. My MacBook didn’t love Lightroom days.

If you’re wondering whether the friction is worth it, this brutally honest take lays out the good, the bad, and the battery drains. On the macro level, the World Economic Forum has spotlighted the same approach as a viable antidote to digital overload, linking deep-work blocks to measurable boosts in creativity and throughput.

Results that made me keep it

• 23 out of 30 monk days hit the mark.
• Average 4 sessions a day (50 minutes each).
• Three big pieces shipped: one long review, one email series, one photo set.
• Screen time dropped from 5h42 to about 3h08 on weekdays.
• Sleep went up about 20 minutes on average, per my Apple Watch. Fewer late scrolls.

Need a longer sample size? Someone went 45 full days and still swears by it. I’m sticking with the month-on, month-off cadence for now, but one brave soul tried 90 straight days if you want to peek at the extreme version.

Not perfect numbers, but they felt real in my body. Less jitter. More done.

Who this helps (and who it doesn’t)

• Great for: writers, coders, students, editors, designers on deep tasks, anyone building a thing in quiet.
• Tough for: sales, support, on-call folks, or jobs where fast replies matter.
• If you share care duties or have kids, keep call exceptions on. You’ll need that.

My small setup guide, if you want to copy me

• Make a one-tap start. A Shortcut, a macro, whatever—start Focus, open your work board, start the timer.
• Block only the traps you fall into. You don’t need to block the whole web if your weak spot is just YouTube.
• Keep one safe path for urgent calls.
• Pick a sound rule. Brown noise or soft rain. Save music with lyrics for later.
• Cap it at five sessions. Rest is part of the work. Weird, but true.

Some folks find that their biggest digital distraction isn’t social feeds at all but private messaging threads that can veer into flirtier territory. Beyond the time sink, those chats can have legal gray areas—for example, questions around consent and age. If you’ve ever caught yourself wondering is sexting a crime? the guide breaks down relevant laws, penalties, and safer practices so you can stay focused and on the right side of the rules. For a lot of Angelenos, the siren call is less about DMs and more about scrolling local hookup boards; if that sounds familiar, the curated rundown at Backpage Inglewood can steer you toward verified ads and safety tips so you spend fewer nights doom-scrolling and more time actually deciding whether you want to meet up at all.

If you’d rather grab a ready-made checklist than build one from scratch, you can snag a free template over at Monkify that mirrors almost everything I used. If you vibe with YouTuber Hamza’s stricter flavor, his 30-day Hamza-style monk mode report is a solid walkthrough.

Money talk, quick and plain

• You can do this free with iPhone Focus, Screen Time, and a simple timer.
• I pay for Freedom and Cold Turkey because they’re harder to dodge. Worth it for me. Your call.

The human part

Some mornings I didn’t want it. I wanted hot waffles, a big scroll, and a nap. I still flipped the switch. Not every time, but most. The more I did it, the easier it

Quick outline

• Why I tried monk mode
• My simple rules
• Tools that helped (and what didn’t)
• Week-by-week notes with real slip-ups
• A sample day
• Wins, fails, and numbers
• Tips if you want to try

Why I Even Tried This

My brain felt loud. Slack pings. News. Reels. Then I’d sit down to work and feel like a soda can after you shake it—busy, but not useful. So I tried monk mode for 30 days. Not forever. Just a reset. Short, strict, and clear.

Did it fix my whole life? No. But you know what? It cleared the fog. I could hear my thoughts again. If you want to see how someone else navigated a similar sprint, read this candid diary of going full Monk Mode for 30 days.

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The Rules I Lived By

I kept it simple so I couldn’t wiggle out.

• 2 hours of deep work each weekday before noon (no meetings, no phone)
• No social media, except 15 minutes on Saturday afternoon
• Phone sleeps in the kitchen, face down
• Walk or run every day (20 minutes counts)
• No sugar on weekdays (weekends allowed)
• Read 20 pages a day on paper or Kindle
• Lights out by 10:30 p.m., alarm at 6:30 a.m.

Little note: I wrote these on a sticky note and slapped it on my laptop. Seeing the rules helped when my willpower felt like wet tissue. Those rules echo the approach in this no-fluff 30-day Monk Mode test run if you need another simple template.

The Gear That Actually Helped

• Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones: soft, quiet, and comfy for long blocks.
• Freedom app: blocked Instagram, YouTube, and news during work hours.
• Forest app: timer with a cute tree; silly, but it kept me honest.
• Notion: one page for tasks, one for rules, one for wins.
• Kindle Paperwhite: no alerts, just books.
• Time timer cube: I used the 30/60/90-minute sides like a game.
• YETI mug with water: because thirst is sneaky.

One unexpected leak in my attention bucket was adult browsing. To stop a “quick peek” from spiraling, I pre-emptively blocked every NSFW site I could think of—yes, even discovery hubs like MILF Maps where you can browse interactive location-based listings of mature dating prospects and plan meet-ups in seconds—useful if you’re socializing, disastrous when you’re supposed to be writing copy. Along the same lines, local classified boards such as Backpage Canton offer a constantly refreshed stream of nearby adult encounters, which can be valuable if you're looking to connect with people in your city but absolutely lethal for focus when you're in deep-work mode.

Stuff I thought would help but didn’t:

• My reMarkable tablet. I love it, but I still grabbed my phone. Paper notebook worked better for this month.
• Cold showers. I tried. I squealed. I stopped.

Week 1: The Jitters and the Kitchen Phone

Day 2, I kept reaching for a phone that wasn’t there. I’d stand in the doorway like, What did I come here for? Then I’d drink water and go back to my desk. The first deep work block felt long. Like, stare-at-the-wall long. Week 1 sounded a lot like this writer’s first-week jitters in their 45-day Monk Mode challenge.

Real win: I wrote a client brand outline in a single 90-minute block. I used Lo-fi Girl on loop, headphones on, Forest running. I finished early and walked around the block in the sun. Simple, but it felt like taking a rock out of my shoe.

Week 2: The Slump and the Cake

I crashed a bit. Day 9, I scrolled on my laptop. I told myself it was research. It wasn’t. I installed Freedom on desktop too.

Also, I ate birthday cake on a Wednesday. I felt bad for 10 minutes, then I reset. My rule became “No sugar on weekdays unless it’s an event.” That tiny change kept me sane and still strict. If you’re curious how other people handled mid-month cravings, this honest write-up, “I tried Monk Mode so you don’t have to,” has a hilarious sugar-crash story.

Week 3: The Quiet Stretch

This was the sweet spot. I did two 60-minute deep work blocks back to back and outlined a full blog series for a client. I used the Sony headphones, a timer cube, and one sticky note with “Only headlines, Kayla.”

I noticed I stopped thinking about my phone. It was like my brain learned the room had fewer doors. It calmed down. That same calm shows up around the third week in this detailed 30-day Monk Mode challenge report.

Week 4: Life Shows Up

My parents visited. I switched to half-days and moved deep work to 8–10 a.m. I missed a run, but I took a long walk with my mom. We talked about nothing in the best way. Monk mode didn’t break. It bent. A similar family-visit curveball pops up in this user's 30-day Monk Mode diary of rules, slip-ups, and real results.

What a Real Day Looked Like

• 6:30 a.m. Wake up, water, stretch
• 7:00 a.m. Oatmeal and coffee (YETI mug, still hot at 9)
• 7:30 a.m. 20-minute walk with a podcast
• 8:00–10:00 a.m. Deep work block (Freedom ON, Forest ON)
• 10:00 a.m. Snack, check messages
• 10:30–11:30 a.m. Admin stuff (email, Slack)
• 12:00 p.m. Lunch, 10 pages on Kindle
• 1:00–3:00 p.m. Calls or light work
• 3:30 p.m. Short run or stretching
• 9:45 p.m. Read 10 more pages
• 10:30 p.m. Lights out, phone in kitchen

Was every day like this? Not even close. But this was the target, and hitting 70% still moved the needle.

What Worked For Me

• Clear start: I wrote rules and told one friend who checked in. It felt real.
• One switch: phone in the kitchen. This mattered more than anything.
• Time boxing: that 2-hour morning block set the tone for the whole day.
• Gentle movement: even a 20-minute walk reset my brain.
• Tiny books: short chapters kept me reading. I finished two.

What Didn’t Work (And Kinda Hurt)

• Zero social for 30 days was too strict for me. The Saturday window felt healthy.
• Late-night “just one email” ruined sleep. I had to cut it off.
• Overplanning. I got stuck making pretty Notion pages. Pretty doesn’t ship.

For more pros and cons, this brutally honest full Monk Mode review pulls no punches.

Real Numbers From My Month

• Deep work: average 1 hour 47 minutes per weekday (tracked with Forest)
• Reading: 612 pages total (two books and one long report)
• Steps: 8,300 per day on average
• Sleep: from 6 hours 20 minutes to 7 hours 10 minutes (Apple Watch)
• Sugar slip-ups: three on weekdays; I owned them, then moved on
• Work wins: finished a client brand deck 5 days early and sent it with zero edits needed

If you’re thinking about a longer stretch, this 90-day reflection on [going Monk Mode for an entire quarter](https://www.monkify.com/i-went-monk-mode-for-90-days-how-i-did-it-