# This Centuries-Old Trick Will Unlock Your Productivity

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## Metadata
- Author: [[Ingrid Rojas Contreras]]
- Full Title: This Centuries-Old Trick Will Unlock Your Productivity
- Category: #articles
- URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/26/magazine/productivity-self-mesmerism.html

## Highlights
- The data did not bring me closer to the state of mind I had identified as the most conducive for writing: a floating between presence and absence, a sense of stillness, awareness and listening.
- The sameness of repetition is never the point. It is a daily door I step through, on the other side of which I am emptied and am filled with something better. I leave the familiar behind to embrace what is unfamiliar and mysterious. No matter what is happening in my life, choosing repetition lets me deliver myself to the moment at hand.