Task & Timer

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Task & Timer bgfay - March 23, 2020

Here's my situation:

I can’t seem to get myself going this morning. There are some things I could, maybe should be doing, but none are really of much use and most are dependent on communicating with others so I send email and wait for replies. Everyone is dealing with stuff and my email isn't top priority. Nor should it be. I have brief moments of productivity between long stretches of nothing to do.

Maybe you can relate.

I'm not complaining, just trying to find a way to deal with the way things are. Since I'm not alone in having this problem, maybe we can test-drive a possible solution. You'll need a task and a timer.

  • Task: Write a blog post
  • Timer: 45 minutes

One issue with working from home is boundless time.

Yesterday, I had five important tasks to do and finished before noon. Today, there wasn't even that much, so I read the news. Big mistake on two levels:

  1. The news was the idiot man-child in the White House complaining that the virus is lasting longer than his short attention span.
  2. Online, I fall into a spiral of clicking, clicking, clicking on nothing, nothing, nothing hoping to be rescued by something onscreen. Rescue never comes from the screen. It comes from within and involves shutting the screen.

(I'm typing this on a screen but in a minimal editor set to full-screen mode and free of distractions.)

When in doubt, block computer/phone distractions, assign a task, set a timer, and work for the allotted time.

I may not finish this post before the timer sounds. That's fine so long as I keep going for forty-five minutes, as long as I'm working and focused long enough to pass the points of frustration.

I'm most likely to abandon things out of frustration within the first fifteen minutes. Past that, I usually stay with the task and make something of it.

Here's my confession: I tried to quit this post twice already. At two minutes in and again at twelve minutes, I gave up. Both times I went toward checking email and news, but the timer called me back. I still have time on the clock, I told myself and kept going.

Having nearly finished, I'm not sure I've created much of anything, but staying with the timer is worth something to me.

Maybe it's worth something to you.

I'm home with my wife and kids, dog and cats, daily calls to my mother and brother, email from friends, and my work. Working entirely from home this way is quite a shift and a tough balance. I'll need time to grow accustomed. Having one specific task and a timer helps.

My timer, by the way, is up. I'm off that clock. Time for a break. Maybe a few push-ups to get the blood flowing. Then I'll set another timer, start at the top, and revise this into a post.

Setting the timer for this one task got me going. How cool is that?

What are you doing to adjust to working from home? Leave a comment below. Let's talk.

The idea for timed writing comes from Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down The Bones and Peter Elbow's Writing Without Teachers to name just two writing books that suggest it.

The idea for using a timer in this way also comes from the New York Times piece "Letter of Recommendation: Kitchen Timer" by Ben Dolnick that I have copied here for those lacking a Times subscription.

Art & Intent

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I'm having trouble my students always complained about in which I feel that there's nothing to write. I've committed to writing a daily blog post during these tough times but this morning I've had nothing to say. That's how it feels.

But I know better.

There's plenty to say, it's just that none of it seems worthy of putting out into the world. There's a guy I read online who posts almost everything he does and thinks. I skip eighty percent of his posts because they offer me nothing. However, the other twenty percent of posts are good. Were we friends and not living so far apart, I would ask him to explain how the eighty percent is any better than pictures of dinner and dessert that people post online. Does anyone enjoy looking at those?

Writing for others, I have to consider, well, others. I don't have to cater to them, but I have to be presenting something to them. What I'm writing now may not be useful to some, but I'm writing it with intent, to stress (again) that writing and creating are things we have to keep doing for ourselves and others, and that we need to create with intent.

My friend relayed advice he had read that every single photograph has to tell a story, has to have some message. We rolled our eyes, not because it's a bad idea but because it's too simplistic. Creative endeavors must have intent (not necessarily a message) to take an audience somewhere. Art is a vehicle. Where it takes us is up to artist and audience, and is dependent on the moment.

My writing may or may not be art. It is intended as such by me, but that's only part of the equation. It is however, the only part of the equation I control, so the thing to do is to keep making art and hold onto my intent.

At the top, I talked about students I taught over twenty-four years when I was a public school teacher. I've left that career but artists remain teachers. My friend's art teachers challenging lessons by refusing easy prettiness. My writing teaches by mining my experience while trying not to be too pedantic, narcissistic, or boring.

When I approach making art with intent, it's easy to feel there's nothing within me worthy of such a thing. Nonsense. Not all of what I think, feel, and experience should be shared, but much more of it is worthy than I tend to want to believe.

Two last things:

As always, the keys are to start and keep going. I sat and typed the first thing that came to my mind then kept going until I said the last word.

Art doesn't come out the first time, so I went back to the top and shaped what I had put down. Revision took the half-baked, self-centered, indulgent thoughts and created something for an audience that just might be, if I did it right, artful. At least it was done with that intent and showed me again that there is always something to write. I'll keep writing.

New Routine

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Happy Saint Patrick's Day. I know that's usually written "St. Patrick" but an extra "saint" in the world is better than an abbreviation. I have very little understanding of who Saint Patrick was and am a little suspicious of those who "bring" Christianity to believers of other things, but I like to think there's good in this world and that we learn from that, so Happy Saint Patrick's Day.

I'm on the couch listening to Vince Guaraldi & Bola Sete. Usually by now I'd have taken my daughter to school and gone in to the office, but schools and the office are closed. I need a new routine.

Routine gets a bad rap — Stuck in a rut. Same old, same old — but routine provides comfort and rhythm. Last night I went to bed at the usual time. This morning I got up about as usual. I made a cup of coffee and wrote my Morning Pages. That has been my routine for years. I'll continue it.

After Morning Pages I usually shave, shower, dress, and go to work. I'll work from home for the foreseeable future, but I still shaved and will shower and dress once my daughters are awake. Shaving reminds me that I still have obligations (mostly to myself) and the power to respond instead of just reacting. My smooth face (though I try not to touch it) reminds me I'm not just alive but I'm living. There's a difference.

I'm on the couch typing this, testing if it could become routine, writing a morning blog post.

I can't tell what my new routine will be. I try things and see how they feel. Today it's sitting on the couch under a blanket listening to Guaraldi & Bola while typing a post about routine. Tomorrow may bring something else. I'll move in and out of things until I get into a groove. Developing a routine takes patience, time, acceptance, and the determination to create a routine.

Creative people are good models for this. A friend has worked in the arts for years. No boss, no time clock, no regular paycheck, but he has a routine he follows pretty regularly. That's how he gets the work done and getting the work done is what he most wants to do. Routine allows him to explore and create.

Routine helps me go through my days and not let them pass me by. Routine comforts and helps me feel as if I'm doing something good.

This morning I wrote three pages by hand which is always good. I shaved so I look at least a little bit good. Now I've sat on the couch and typed something that may be good to others. The routine feels good and feeling good is something I need, something we're all going to need. Routinely.