This week was quieter on the one hand because we’re done traveling and vacationing for a bit, but it was busier on the other because now we’re handling repairs and updates to our home. Life never stops, does it? With so many things going on, it’s easy to fall into the danger of multitasking. What I found this week was that if you really want to get things done, the opposite is far more productive. We’ll get into it down below.
Drawing from the Well
A LOT got done on Book 3 this week. I finished going through the written notes (the first step in the Red Edit) for the third arc of five in the book. Huge progress. It really put the wind in my sails to keep going. Hopefully that’ll turn into more momentum as the week grinds on.
Page 180/284
91,573/145,371 Words
Filling the Well
I love when I find a free short Audible series on Amazon. The last few days I’ve listened to most of The Far Reaches series. They’re short science fiction stores that really get you thinking and they’re by incredible authors like James S.A. Corey, John Scalzi, and Rebecca Roanhorse. I’ve listened to four so far and I’ve got two to go. Then it’s back into The Ship Beyond Time, which is a good twist on The Girl from Everywhere.
65/105 for #ProjectBookworm2023
WoW’s next patch, Fury Incarnate, was announced to launch on September 5 yesterday, so it’s exciting times in my gaming world again. Looking forward to new content even as the most recent content is still quite fresh.
Well Chat
We’re all prone to multitasking these days. I’m multitasking right now. Building this blog each week is an exercise in multitasking. It takes a lot of focus to get it done. People often think that multitasking means you’re getting two things done in the exact same amount of time.
But are you?
If you finish two tasks at the same time, it can feel this way, but it isn’t the truth. Every time you switch from one task to another, there’s a cost. And you know that’s what you’re doing right? Real talk: you can only do one thing at a time. Sure, you can rub your belly and pat your head at the same time, but you can only pay bills or write a blog at once. You cannot actually do both at the same time. Multitasking is really just switching back and forth constantly between various tasks. Just while writing this paragraph I’ve checked my phone twice and checked a giant photo upload in progress. I CANNOT do either of those things while writing the blog.
With that in mind, let’s get back to the cost. When you focus on one task, you can get into a flow state. That’s where the separation between your brain and what your doing seems to disappear. You become what you’re doing. I’ve talked about this when I discuss my drafting process. I can get to a point, when my sprints are going really well, that I stop thinking about my hands on the keyboard or even the words I’m going to type next. The words just come out. That’s flow state. Now, you can only get into flow state by staying on a single task. That barrier goes up as soon as you look away to do something else. Yes, even checking your phone counts here.
For example, that last paragraph, I wrote all in one go. It took me about a minute because I never looked away and just kept writing. My thoughts are more coherent and I completed it faster. The paragraph before, where I was distracted by other things, took five times as long and probably isn’t written as well. That’s the other side effect of multitasking. On top of, truthfully, taking longer, the quality of BOTH tasks drops significantly.
Now, sometimes this is fine. If you’re working on an e-mail and get an IM and address it, you can probably go back to the e-mail and be fine. Yes, you’ll need a moment to remember what you were writing and get back into the thought flow you were in before, but you can do it. Where this becomes really important is for tasks that are, well, really important. When you’re evaluating a choice that is going to change your life for years to come, you might want to focus. When you’re doing something creative and meaningful, you might want to focus. When you’re having a conversation that really matters to you, you might want to focus.
When I did this one late night this week, I finished the current task on the third arc of my WIP. It had a quarter of the total work left to do when I started. Focus and you can do it too.
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG