One month from today, I will be arriving here:
As you might guess, planning is making life a bit hectic. It's my fourth trip to the UK, but instead of being in a college program, on a bus tour, or having a romantic getaway with my hubby, I'll be taking a family trip. It's my 10-year-old daughter's first time off the continent of North America, and we'll be renting a car and driving. On the left side of the road. Yeah. A many of new adventures lie ahead.
My day job tends to get very hectic in late May, when all the college professors get busy with summer writing projects and submissions to scholarly journals like the one I work on.
Promoting my novel and poetry collection continues to take my time in dribs and drabs.
And then there's the new novel, crying for my attention.
It's so easy on days like this to scurry from thing to thing and feel like I never fully engaged with anything.
That, friends, is "attention splatter," a helpful concept in the social media-soaked world. This article by Christine Kane explains it well.
She recommends having fewer priorities a day. Awesome. I'd love that. However, I can't control my agenda to that degree. I can, however, build pockets of focus into my day.
How? Set aside "sprint hours" and "concentration hours." In other words, give yourself pockets of quiet to do focused work, then at set intervals, deal with the small tasks that tend to interrupt: check and respond to e-mail, make a call or two, pop onto Facebook or Twitter.
Then stop.
Breathe.
Get up and walk a little. Drink a glass of water. Say a prayer or hail the muse.
Sit. Sink into your stillcenter.
Dig in to your next concentrated task with your full attention.
Do you have certain times of year that bring more "attention splatter"? How do you cope?
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| photo by schurch, morguefile.com |
My day job tends to get very hectic in late May, when all the college professors get busy with summer writing projects and submissions to scholarly journals like the one I work on.
Promoting my novel and poetry collection continues to take my time in dribs and drabs.
And then there's the new novel, crying for my attention.
It's so easy on days like this to scurry from thing to thing and feel like I never fully engaged with anything.
That, friends, is "attention splatter," a helpful concept in the social media-soaked world. This article by Christine Kane explains it well.
She recommends having fewer priorities a day. Awesome. I'd love that. However, I can't control my agenda to that degree. I can, however, build pockets of focus into my day.
How? Set aside "sprint hours" and "concentration hours." In other words, give yourself pockets of quiet to do focused work, then at set intervals, deal with the small tasks that tend to interrupt: check and respond to e-mail, make a call or two, pop onto Facebook or Twitter.
Then stop.
Breathe.
Get up and walk a little. Drink a glass of water. Say a prayer or hail the muse.
Sit. Sink into your stillcenter.
Dig in to your next concentrated task with your full attention.
Do you have certain times of year that bring more "attention splatter"? How do you cope?
