Monk Mode in 2025 has never been more relevant. The average worker checks email 36 times per day, gets distracted 56 times per day, and takes, on average, 23 minutes to recover focus. And few are doing anything to change. The nonstop notifications, interruptions while working remotely, and the blurring of personal and professional lives make this ancient art of withdrawing into focused solitude a modern necessity rather than a spiritual luxury.
Rooted in centuries-old monastic traditions and refashioned for our tech-driven society, Monk Mode aims to sharpen our focus and deepen our mindfulness by cutting out the unnecessary. If your days are brimming over with email or non stop messages and an ever-growing sense of digital fatigue, then this guide is for you. By the end of this article, you’ll understand what Monk Mode is, how it has evolved to meet the challenges of 2025, and why it remains a potent strategy for living a more balanced, productive life.
Key Takeaways
- Use the AI prompt below to plan your monk mode tasks and schedule
- Follow the 5 Monk Mode Rules for 2025
- Use rituals to get you in the zone faster
When David Goggins said, “It’s easy to be great nowadays because most people are weak.” He wasn’t talking about how strong or athletic you are, “If you have ANY mental toughness, if you have any fraction of self-discipline…on the other side is Greatness!” He’s talking about working when everyone else isn’t. He’s talking about staying focused and getting further and further in front of everyone else around you. Monk mode is the way to do it! And if you’ve fallen behind, you can catch everyone up this year.
I’ve used monk mode to leapfrog my peers repeatedly, and I want to give you a framework for Monk Mode in 2025, supercharged with new technologies!
Monk Mode Means Distraction Free Work
Let’s start with what monk mode is.
Monk Mode is the practice of dedicating a specific period—whether it’s a few hours, a day, or an entire season—to uninterrupted focus and mindful living. Just like traditional monks, you retreat into solitude, silence, or contemplative settings to cultivate self-awareness, spiritual growth, and an unwavering sense of discipline. The idea is to hold back external distractions, reduce mental clutter, and redirect that liberated energy into deep work.
At its core, Monk Mode is a commitment to eliminating distractions and committing to deep focus and self-improvement, but it’s not the same thing as “trying to use your phone less” or “watching less Netflix.” Monk mode isn’t a New Year resolution. It’s a switch; either you’re doing it or you’re not. Switch it on!
Why 2025 is Different
In 2025, Monk Mode looks different than it did in 2015 or even 2020. Technology has evolved. Augmented reality (AR) workstations, immersive virtual meeting rooms, and wearable devices that provide health metrics throughout the day can empower us to work smarter. But can also create new forms of digital overstimulation. Remote work has become the norm for many industries, making it harder to establish boundaries between “work time” and “personal time.”
That’s where modern solitude techniques come into play. With so much of our day spent online, practicing deliberate digital detox periods—an essential aspect of Monk Mode in 2025—becomes as critical as setting aside time for exercise or quality sleep. People are beginning to recognize that recharging the mind and moving toward simple living has a direct impact on overall well-being and creative output.
So, deciding to start monk mode requires a cleansing of your physical environment, your digital landscape, and your mind. Here are the main commitments you must make during your monk mode time. Or check out this full list of Monk Mode Rules.
- Digital Detox (Zero Screen Time)
- Solitude: No Socializing
- Self-Denial: No Drugs or Alcohol
- Focus: Work on One (Predefined) Goal
- Discipline: Always Start and Finish On Time
I know a 3-month Monk Mode retreat sounds great on paper. Still, for most people in 2025 who have a job, family commitments, and an entire digital life that they can’t just abandon for months, the traditional monk mode isn’t practical unless you’re living on a farm and being homeschooled in the middle of nowhere (or living at a monastery.)
This is why we need a new Monk Mode for 2025, a framework that works in this fast-paced world and one where we can still get the benefits of a long-needed digital detox but also use AI to achieve our goals faster.
The Monk Mode 2025 Framework: Setting Yourself Up for Success
Step 1: Create a Clear Vision
Define your goals and purpose for entering Monk Mode. E.g., “I want to write a fantasy novel.” Your vision might be a number of goals, but the more you set, the less focused you’ll be. In Measure What Matters, John Doerr recommends no more than 3-4 OKRs per quarter, and as three months is optimal for monk mode, you should use that as a guideline.
You don’t need to use the SMART acronym, but ensure you create input goals, not output goals.
- Input Goal: Write a book
- Output Goal: Get on the New York Times Best-Seller list
You have control over the input you put in, such as writing a book, but you don’t have control over how well the book sells. So, focus your goal on what you can control.
Step 2: Commit to Non-Negotiable Rules
Pick three rules you know you can stick to. E.g.:
- No Phone after work
- No Drinking
- No going out with friends
Three rules are much easier to stick to than trying to conquer the full 10 monk mode rules, especially if this is your first time and you have problems with discipline.
Step 3: Choose a Start and End Date
Be realistic, I recommend 1-3 months
Don’t “try it out” or “I’ll stop when I’m bored.” Those are recipes for quitting early or taking monk mode too lightly. Instead, give yourself a strict start date and an end date. And no matter what, you’re going to adhere to them. If you slip up and make mistakes, just get back on the wagon and keep going till your end date arrives. Mark it on your calendar if you have one, and let everyone in your life know you’ll be less available than usual.
Step 4: Block Out Your Time
Decide the hours you will put in. E.g., 7-9 pm after work and 8-11 am Saturday mornings. Below is an AI hack that will make this easier!
Step 5: Prep Your Environment
- Delete your social media apps
- Choose a room (or desk) to work at and optimize it for work.
- Remove distractions: Put away your phone and unplug unnecessary devices.
- Gather essentials: Water, snacks, and any tools you need for your work or mindfulness practice.
Step 6: Establish Rituals
Every morning during my Monk Mode in the Himalayas, I’d walk down from my Hotel to a cafe where I’d sit and order a simple black espresso with pink salt. The salt danced on my tongue and tightened my focus as the caffeine did its thing. I sat there every morning for an hour or two and was so focused that I’d sometimes forget the time and end up being late for my first Tibetan class.
I had to bring this ritual back with me, and to this day, whenever I have a salty espresso, my mind goes back to the mountains, and I get into a state of peaceful focus that lasts hours.
You can create your own ritual to put yourself into a deep-work mindstate:
- A study music playlist.
- A brief meditation or breathing exercise to center yourself.
- A cup of tea or coffee
- A balance or juggling routine
If you find it works, keep doing it. Evidence shows that your mind will get into a focus mode quicker if you use the same ritual at the start of your work sessions.
Step 7: Review and Adjust
Use the tools you have at your disposal, which means productivity apps like task managers. It means the metrics on your smartwatch, it means the word count at the bottom of your text editor. Look at the data, and find out what’s working for you and what isn’t, then tweak and adjust next time.
- How many tasks did you check off today?
- How many words did you write?
- How good was your sleep last night?
- What was your step count or heart rate today?
Using AI and Apps for Monk Mode Bliss
I want you to help me plan my Monk Mode, my goal is to [your goals] I'm busy during these times [busy times], and the biggest problem I have with getting extra work done is [enter your problems] I need a timetable that will challenge me but also be realistic while also ensuring I make massive progress on my goal, the goal needs to be broken down into specific action steps then built into a [monk mode length (e.g. 1 month)] timetable, thanks!
Make this planning phase easy on yourself by pasting the steps above into an AI like ChatGPT and entering your details by removing the [square brackets.] Ask it for a table you can print out if that’s what you need.
Tools For Monk Mode Success. Here’s Three:
1. Distraction Blocking Apps – help you focus by removing access to certain apps and websites during your monk mode times. This is great if you need to use social media for work but don’t want to waste time on it in the evenings.
- Freedom – a cross-platform app and website blocker.
2. Productivity Apps – are also a great way to keep yourself focused on achieving your goals. Greeta University found that something as simple as writing down your goals can increase the likelihood of achieving them by 42%. Of course, you don’t need apps for this; GTD on paper is a great choice.
3. PKM – If you don’t have a personal knowledge management app yet, get one! Spending a month reading and learning will only be as effective as how much you can remember months and years from now. A system to capture and organize your acquired knowledge will ensure that it remains and your time isn’t wasted.
4. ANC Headphones – with a good pair of active noise canceling headphones, you can turn any place into a quiet monk mode space to be by yourself and super productive. Carry them with you at all times.
The Value of Carving Out Uninterrupted Time for Deep Work and Reflection
Blocking out time isn’t as easy as just seeing when you have a gap in your schedule and penciling in Monk Mode Focus Time. The goals we really want to work on, the ones that are important to our lives, don’t lend themselves to being squeezed between a workout and a dentist appointment. They often need space to breathe, and you must relax to be creative. It will take time to get into the groove of a big task like writing a book, learning a new language, or building a business.
This really hit me when I dropped everything to go learn Tibetan in the Himalayas. My family, my work, and all my problems were back at home, thousands of miles away, so my mind had the space to focus and truly relax, which made learning much more effective.
I know most people can’t drop everything and fly to the Himalayas for a few months when they want to make progress on their goals, so do this instead.
Before you start your next monk mode time block, mentally leave everything behind you and fly to the Himalayas (or somewhere relevant to you, perhaps a beach) in your mind. Sit there and look around and just relax, being a million miles from your life for a few minutes, then start your work, and you’ll find that your focus is improved.
Tianjin is a huge city in the North of China; its streets are always full of hustle and bustle, and writing among the nonstop noises and people coming and going was always a challenge for me until I found an oasis. A Korean cafe became my everyday working space to write. The vibe there was so different from the atmosphere everywhere else. I’d sit, slowly drinking my coffee, smoking a cigar. After five minutes of just sitting and relaxing, I could feel my mindset change, and when I opened my laptop to start writing, I felt “locked in.” Hours would pass, and I’d realize I was still typing frantically, letting the words just pour out of me.
Embrace Your Inner Monk in 2025
Carve out just an hour or two this week. Turn off your devices and find a quiet space, then go through the steps above to plan monk mode for a month or two and see who you could be this year. Monitor how you feel before and after. Do you experience less stress and greater clarity? Are you tackling tasks with renewed vigor?
Invite a friend or colleague to do it, or explore one of the emerging digital communities dedicated to modern solitude techniques. The point isn’t to withdraw from life—it’s to engage more deeply with what truly matters.
Make an effort this year to liberate yourself from a world that constantly wants all of you at every moment, start monk mode, and tell it “No!” You’ll come out of 2025 as a healthier, calmer, and more clear-minded person from who you were going in.