I realize we're dancing around the same topic, kind of complementary?
Loved this advice, it's freeing, and so on-point. Giving yourself permission to live, and then that informing your creations is very wise (and kind of a meta-loop that you found it while being distracted / living). The moment I removed guilt from reading while sipping coffee at 10am on a weekday just because I could, and wanted to, I became instantly happier, and hadn't noticed that it in turn informed what I created.
That's the first step. And, have you developed any strategies to know when there's *too much* dancing with distractions or just playing it by ear?
(I also realize you might be in your "D" period, since all the words in both titles of your essays start with a D)
I agree with all of this, and so feel the need of dilly-dallying and just being a person, exploring, living richly. But at the same time to try and make a living as an entrepreneur seems to require a tremendous amount of focus, productivity, and direction. I wonder if I am making this up, and if I'm just making entrepreneurial life hard when it could be easier. So in the meantime I flip-flop back and forth between bearing down on focused work and opening my attention to the passing whimsies of life. I like both modes for different reasons, but sometimes its hard to know which one to "focus" on.
First, I love your title. Second, I love your observation here that distractions are necessary for creative work. I’m resonating with how you dilly and dally and you’ve inspired me to rethink distractions in the creative process. And finally, I just love this whole essay.
“In our hyper-distracted world, I think it only gets harder and harder to see what’s worth tending to…We’re drowning in the advice and noise of the loudest voices who don’t actually know what we need.” This is soo true. I feel like so many people turn to productivity hacks to work more and work through blocks. But working more doesn’t help, it sometimes makes the whole process worse and over time one can grow to resent that creative process.
“Clearly, we live in a time where what’s most important is most easily neglected and forgotten. Friends. Family. Fun. Health.” Thank you for promoting a reflection. I need to fill my soul up with all these things you mention so I can create more colorful work. And since I prioritized all these things in my sabbatical, I find that my creative work has just gotten so much more enjoyable, and I’ve been able to create much more meaningful work!
I've always found that my best writing (according to me alone ha) is rooted in the details of my ordinary life. I'm trying to take a more "contemplative" approach to it--to life and writing generally--which seems to require that you take the time to linger on the "distractions." This can be hard to do in our modern, frantically-paced digital environment; there's certainly a feeling of FOMO when you decide to trot in the slow lane. But take the invitation seriously and you might find something that you didn't see before, maybe even a different way of living and being. I'm taking inspiration from Annie Dilliard's "Living Like Weasels."
I love the concept of distractions that intensify. But you are right its hard to know what to tend to.
For me personally, I find low-bar monthly cadence discipline works better than other types. For example, I have a goal to get at least 200K steps every month. Its a super low goal and I have been crushing it every month. On the work side, I started the year with a 100 billable hr / month goal (very low in past years I crushed that easily). This year, I've found myself underperforming I am close to 80-90 / month, but a lot of other time spent on creative things, some work related, others just for creativity sake. So I've now iterated to at least 100 high quality work hours rather billable hours.
I think every one is different. Its worth spending the time so each of us can calibrate discipline with our natural rhythms.
Jul 10, 2023·edited Jul 10, 2023Liked by Sandra Yvonne
Thank you Sandra for this amazing piece! It's like you have given me the permission to cut myself some slack. I often feel unproductive and lazy everytime I'm doing something other than 'sharpening my skills' or studying. It takes a toll on me as I tend to feel less of myself.
And it is true that we find inspiration for our craft in other activities...
I realize we're dancing around the same topic, kind of complementary?
Loved this advice, it's freeing, and so on-point. Giving yourself permission to live, and then that informing your creations is very wise (and kind of a meta-loop that you found it while being distracted / living). The moment I removed guilt from reading while sipping coffee at 10am on a weekday just because I could, and wanted to, I became instantly happier, and hadn't noticed that it in turn informed what I created.
That's the first step. And, have you developed any strategies to know when there's *too much* dancing with distractions or just playing it by ear?
(I also realize you might be in your "D" period, since all the words in both titles of your essays start with a D)
I agree with all of this, and so feel the need of dilly-dallying and just being a person, exploring, living richly. But at the same time to try and make a living as an entrepreneur seems to require a tremendous amount of focus, productivity, and direction. I wonder if I am making this up, and if I'm just making entrepreneurial life hard when it could be easier. So in the meantime I flip-flop back and forth between bearing down on focused work and opening my attention to the passing whimsies of life. I like both modes for different reasons, but sometimes its hard to know which one to "focus" on.
First, I love your title. Second, I love your observation here that distractions are necessary for creative work. I’m resonating with how you dilly and dally and you’ve inspired me to rethink distractions in the creative process. And finally, I just love this whole essay.
“In our hyper-distracted world, I think it only gets harder and harder to see what’s worth tending to…We’re drowning in the advice and noise of the loudest voices who don’t actually know what we need.” This is soo true. I feel like so many people turn to productivity hacks to work more and work through blocks. But working more doesn’t help, it sometimes makes the whole process worse and over time one can grow to resent that creative process.
“Clearly, we live in a time where what’s most important is most easily neglected and forgotten. Friends. Family. Fun. Health.” Thank you for promoting a reflection. I need to fill my soul up with all these things you mention so I can create more colorful work. And since I prioritized all these things in my sabbatical, I find that my creative work has just gotten so much more enjoyable, and I’ve been able to create much more meaningful work!
BTW where can I find these Van Gogh letters?
What a great reason to subscribe to your newsletter 🤣
I've always found that my best writing (according to me alone ha) is rooted in the details of my ordinary life. I'm trying to take a more "contemplative" approach to it--to life and writing generally--which seems to require that you take the time to linger on the "distractions." This can be hard to do in our modern, frantically-paced digital environment; there's certainly a feeling of FOMO when you decide to trot in the slow lane. But take the invitation seriously and you might find something that you didn't see before, maybe even a different way of living and being. I'm taking inspiration from Annie Dilliard's "Living Like Weasels."
https://public.wsu.edu/~hughesc/dillard_weasel.htm
This is awesome. What a gem that letter!
I love the concept of distractions that intensify. But you are right its hard to know what to tend to.
For me personally, I find low-bar monthly cadence discipline works better than other types. For example, I have a goal to get at least 200K steps every month. Its a super low goal and I have been crushing it every month. On the work side, I started the year with a 100 billable hr / month goal (very low in past years I crushed that easily). This year, I've found myself underperforming I am close to 80-90 / month, but a lot of other time spent on creative things, some work related, others just for creativity sake. So I've now iterated to at least 100 high quality work hours rather billable hours.
I think every one is different. Its worth spending the time so each of us can calibrate discipline with our natural rhythms.
Thank you Sandra for this amazing piece! It's like you have given me the permission to cut myself some slack. I often feel unproductive and lazy everytime I'm doing something other than 'sharpening my skills' or studying. It takes a toll on me as I tend to feel less of myself.
And it is true that we find inspiration for our craft in other activities...
Cheers to being a living person