Kellock Irvin
- Annual three-day silent retreats help Noah Greenberg achieve a better work-life balance.
- He shuts off his phone and uses the time to work on personal and professional goals for the new year.
- His checklist for a retreat includes journals, comfy clothes, and running shoes.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Noah Greenberg, 35, the co-founder and CEO of Stacker, based in New York. It’s been edited for length and clarity.
In the week between Christmas and New Year’s, I go away for an annual three-day silent retreat. I leave my computer behind, turn off my phone, bring a journal, cover all the clocks, and give myself time to think.
I started the tradition in 2020 because I was working from home, opening my computer in bed, and spending the day there. I felt stuck in that loop.
The first year had such a profound impact on me personally and professionally that I kept going. After five years, here are my takeaways — and why I’ve come to realize my retreat works better when there’s almost no preparation involved.
I book an Airbnb between Christmas and New Year’s for 3 days
I’d always considered doing a formal silent retreat, but taking a week off to be completely unreachable seemed like a lot. Then I realized that I didn’t need an organized retreat; I could design one myself.
I decided to go for it. The first two times, I was in California for the holidays, so I booked an Airbnb in upstate Northern California. Since then, I’ve been doing it in upstate New York.
Doing it between Christmas and New Year’s helps me feel less anxious because it’s easier to step away when I feel like things at my media company, Stacker, are already slowing down. When I arrived at my Airbnb that first year and turned my phone off, knowing it would be off for the entire weekend, it felt incredible.
It can be uncomfortable to sit with my thoughts, but that’s where the value is
My checklist for a silent retreat includes journals, comfy clothes, running shoes, or hiking gear if I’m going somewhere with snow, and groceries, which I pick up on the way so that I don’t need to leave once I arrive. I don’t bring my computer, books, podcasts, or anything else that would distract me from my thoughts.
I put Post-It Notes over the clocks so I can’t tell the time while I’m there. I find it really interesting when I’m living without time. I think I go to bed way earlier when I’m there, even though I can’t tell the time. It’s usually pretty soon after the sun sets.
Going hiking while I’m there is a great way to get my steps in, since I spend the rest of my time sitting inside on the couch, journaling. I try to get out of the house twice a day.
When I’m home, I never take an hourlong walk without headphones, just seeing where my thoughts take me. But on my retreat, I have enough discipline to remind myself that I’ve paid for this Airbnb, rented a car, and driven upstate, and I’m going to commit to it for three days.
Too much preparation for the trip can ruin it
In the week leading up to a retreat, I’ll sit down and journal for an hour so I go in with a list of things that have been on my mind, for work and personally. The first time I did it, I didn’t prepare at all.
There’s a lot of value in going and letting everything pour out in a journal that first night to see how I should spend the next couple of days. Too much preparation beforehand means I have to ensure I resolve certain things, which is counterproductive and puts too much pressure on the trip.
I let people in my life know that I’m turning my phone off for three days. I usually try to schedule it over a weekend, as it’s only a day or two offline from work. If you’re a CEO and you can’t take three days off without your team needing you, you’ve got bigger problems.
My retreats have transformed my habits and improved my life overall
These retreats are as valuable for my impact at the company as they are for my overall work-life balance. One year, I realized I wanted to establish a morning routine. I drew out my ideal morning routine, which included waking up at 6 a.m. every day, and now I wake up at six without an alarm.
I always try to think about my work goals and what’s going well and what’s not. There have been times when I realized that a process with my team had been frustrating me, but I was in nonstop grind mode, ignoring that. After I came back from my retreat, I sat down with the team, and we thought about how we can make changes.
I always spend time thinking about what it would mean to me if, at the end of next year, I could say this was a great year. What would that look like?
This year, one of my goals was to have 52 coffees with people in 52 weeks to push myself to get out there more. I developed my calendar mapping habit based on my goals last year, which has improved my productivity.
I learned that it’s OK for it not to have a profound effect every year, but there’s still value in doing the trip annually
The first year I did this, it felt truly transformational in many ways. Midway through my second year, I experienced a sense of disappointment, as if, “Oh, this doesn’t feel as impactful as last year.” I realized that a lot of the things that were bothering me a year ago, I’d already fixed.
I’ve learned that if I go in with certain expectations, they’re usually not met. Since then, I’ve been intentional about not expecting it to live up to the high of that first trip. I want to make it its own journey each year.
Do you have a similar story to share? Contact this editor, Agnes Applegate, at aapplegate@businessinsider.com.
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