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This weekend we had 7 hour power outages on both days. Unplanned.
No internet. No heating. No lights. Candles by mid-afternoon. Not dramatic, just fairly inconvenient in a way modern life isn't used to.
What surprised me wasn't the discomfort.
With no internet and nothing quietly pulling at our attention, conversations were better. Silence didn't need filling. It was all silence.
Not especially cosy or "quality time." Just a bit more present, by default.
We tend to talk about attention as a personal failing, focus harder, be more disciplined, set better boundaries. But if you remove the option to be distracted, behaviour follows.
If you remove the option to be distracted, behaviour follows
I don't mean to romanticise unplanned power cuts. They're inconvenient, cold, dark and frustrating. But the experience was a useful reminder that most of our time is shaped by the systems and defaults around us.
In work, we design environments for others all the time: tools, processes, expectations. At home, we do the same for ourselves, just less consciously. The weekend made it obvious how much those environments decide for us.
No big conclusions. Just a small, slightly uncomfortable insight worth holding onto the next time focus feels like a personal shortcoming rather than a design problem.
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