Earlier this week, my daughter and I and a few friends visited a local artist at his home and studio. It was an incredibly inspiring experience! This artist works in a variety of media, and the home he shares with his wife is itself a work of art. He also works in local schools and is a dedicated husband, father and grandfather. I was amazed at the scope and extent of everything he does. When I asked him about motivation and focus, he said that he really just loves what he does and that's the key. He also mentioned using all the random bits of time in a day to work on his art. Time that I might be using to look at a screen, I thought to myself. Obviously, someone who makes his living as a full-time artist is different than those of us just trying to do some creative work on the side. Still, it was inspiring to see his passion and commitment to his work. It made me think of all the aspects of modern life that can tempt us away from our creative work or passions or hobbies. I thought of three main maladies:
1) Multi-tasking - It turns out that multi-tasking isn't so great after all. If you're interested in the research, watch this or read this. I don't need any convincing. When I try to do too much at the same time, it inevitably backfires in some way. I forget about the laundry sitting in the washer all day, break a glass while hurriedly washing dishes, and start a writing project but never finish it. Some simpler jobs can be combined effectively: I can carry on a decent phone conversation while folding laundry. But intermixing too many tasks often results in doing a lot of things badly or incompletely rather than doing a few things well.
Antidote - Focus on one thing at a time. Cultivate paying attention and mindfulness. Eliminate distractions as much as possible; see #3 below.
2) Busyness - We are so proud of our busyness sometimes, aren't we? I'm guilty. The truth is - we might not be quite as busy as we think we are. And we might be making choices that reinforce the busyness we supposedly lament. We have elevated busyness to a virtue, according to this article. Yet in reality, busyness is more like a disease according to this blog post. I recommend both of those links as excellent reads, by the way.
Antidote - Avoid multi-tasking; see #1 above. Say no sometimes - you actually can't do everything, at least not at the same time. Stop telling yourself you're so busy. Eliminate distractions and time-wasters; see #3 below.
3) Distraction & time-wasters - These will be different for everyone. My distractions and time-wasters are mostly of the electronic kind, and I suspect that's the case for many people. For me, it might be compulsively checking e-mail or Facebook. For others, it might be excessively checking sports scores, stocks or news updates. Or it could be spending several hours per day watching television or playing videos games. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of these activities, but in excess they take time away from other activities, result in ineffective multi-tasking (#1) and contribute to our feeling that we are constantly busy (#2).
Antidote - Limit distractions. This is not an easy task, nor does it have a one-size-fits-all solution. For my part, I'll take my screen-free sabbatical next week.
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You might also enjoy these blog posts:
I don't need to know about Mario Puzo and other lessons from Screen-Free Week
The Case for Space (about the role of technology in our lives)
The Case for Creating: make stuff; it feels good.
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