Living in your cell clearly means manual work, eating only once a day, silence, meditation; but really making progress in the cell means to experience contempt for yourself wherever you go, not to neglect the hours of prayer and to pray secretly. If you happen to have time without manual work, take up prayer and do it without disquiet.
Abba Poeman
Benedicta Ward.
The Sayings of the Desert Fathers. pp. 125-126
