This November 14th, join our global community in celebrating Break the Twitch Day by dedicating 60 minutes to giving your attention a rest while showing it some love. Ready to go? Skip to the instructions on how to participate.
Break the Twitch Day is a day for mindfulness—for taking the time to show your attention some love and to check in with yourself through intentional reflection. It’s a day to put a concerted effort into creating moments of stillness. It’s also a way to explore what more days could look like with a little more intention in your attention.
Break the Twitch Day is on November 14.
Why is Break the Twitch Day important?
Our often days pass in a complete blur. Moment by moment without us even realizing it—with multiple sources competing for and stealing moments of our attention.
November 14 is a day to focus on loving your attention and to show your attention some gratitude for all that it does for you.
On November 14th, 2014, I decided to take my first step of exploring intentionality by registering this domain, breakthetwitch.com, as a way to record and share the process. I knew something in my life needed to change, and I knew that The Twitch was controlling me in ways that I didn’t even realize.
Over the years of exploration, my wife Amy and I have made drastic, positive changes in our lives—many in ways we never expected. We became a one-car family. We quit our jobs (at different times) and became self-employed. We got rid of 80% of our belongings. I wrote a book and gave a TEDx talk. We produced a video podcast with 250k downloads, and built a YouTube channel with 4.5 million views (and counting)! We’ve helped bring an intentional community of kind, brilliant people from all over the world together.
The big changes all came from the topics we talk about here on the site—minimalism, habits, and pursuing creative endeavors. All tools that allow us to use our attention well. Whether it’s minimalism (removing distractions), habits (directing attention and action), or creative flow (the result of minimalism and habits), it all boils down to loving your attention and using it well.
I’ve celebrated Break the Twitch day on November 14 unofficially in past years—but starting in 2020, I’d like to invite you to join me, so we can share this day together. It’s been such a difficult year for so many of us, with the onset of a global pandemic, pervasive social injustices, the American election, and so much more. It seems it is more important now than ever that we share this intentional time with each other.
We all know what it’s like to go through an entire day without feeling present, grounded, or that you’re fully there. Join me, Amy, and our international Break the Twitch community in embracing 60 minutes of mindfulness, intentional action, and slowing down for reflection—in whatever way it shows up for you.
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.
Annie Dillard
How To Participate In Break the Twitch Day on November 14
1 / Give Your Attention One Hour of Time (60 min.)
It’s a 60-minute commitment, that’s it! It doesn’t matter what you do, but use the time to honor the immeasurable value of your attention and all that it is capable of. To do this, you must also give the same respect to the person giving the attention—that’s you! See #2 below for ideas on how to spend this time.
Like others in our community, you could expand the intentional reflection beyond just this day—reflecting on the past year and thinking ahead for the next year. With about a month and a half until the end of the year, and the holidays ahead, it’s the perfect time to do it.
2 / Take Action and Celebrate
Here are some ideas on how to celebrate throughout the day:
- Meditate, journal, and be bored for 20 minutes each.
- Put your phone on ‘airplane mode’ for the entire hour.
- Go analog and write a stream of consciousness in a notebook.
- Take a walk with no music or podcast, and look, listen, and feel all there is to experience out there.
- Create your own love your attention mantra and reflect on it with some writing. “I love my attention, I value my time, and I use it well.”
- Sit and stare at a wall, the ceiling, or a tree. Rest!
3 / Share Your Experience, Inspire Others!
Commemorate the moment with a “thinker pose” photo (examples below) or anything that that reminds you of this experience, and share the message with others to inspire similar action on their behalf. Never underestimate the power of positive encouragement—the world needs to know the value of their attention.
Use #breakthetwitchday to tag and spread the message. We’ll share them on our social media feed (and site for future years)! You can also tag us on IG or FB @breakthetwitch.
4 / Break the Twitch, Forward
Beyond November 14, take your experience and bring it along with you into the holiday season. As you begin planning for the upcoming year, channel that same love-your-attention energy into how you want to show up in all that you do.
You can also join the international community of members to deepen the commitment to your practice. We have guided audio courses, other like-minded humans around the globe, live member workshops, and more. We’re here to assist you on your path. Learn more about the community and the additional resources you get with membership.
Break the Twitch Day Examples
Fun Facts + Final Thoughts
We share this Break the Twitch day of loving our attention with Diwali in 2020 and some other fun national celebrations (listed below) on November 14. As a bonus, feel free to partake in some of these celebrations along with Break the Twitch Day!
- Family PJ Day
- Seat Belt Day
- Pickle Day
- Spicy Guacamole Day
Whatever you end up deciding to do, be kind to yourself, and enjoy the process.