Effects of Attention Residue

"Racking Up the Points"

24" x 36"

Pyrography on birch

First, before I dive into a look at attention residue, let's deal with Mr. Moose here.  I just completed him this past weekend and now he is looking for a good home with ample supplies of water lilies, pine cones, lichen, moss, catkins, tall water grasses, and Moose Tracks Ice Cream.  

Okay, what is attention residue, you ask?  Research has been looking hard at our digital communication pattern, especially in the work place.  They have come up with this term to describe work strategies where you switch from some Task A to another Task B, but your attention doesn't immediately follow.  I have been reading Cal Newport's latest book, Deep Work:  Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, in which he addresses the impacts of distraction on our work.  He asserts that deep work is the only type of work that optimizes your performance.  His definition of deep work is this:  "Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your congnitive capabilities to their limit.  These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate." This is in contrast to shallow work which is non-demanding and often performed while distracted.

I think common sense would make Cal Newport's assertions obvious, but the research results with their stunning implications really drives home the import of what he is saying. One research findings on a particular company found that the company spent over a million dollars paying their employees to process emails instead of focusing on the specialized tasks for which they were hired.  Cal refers to this hard-to-measure amount of time that employees spend on email, social media, and in-house meetings as a metric black hole.  In our own personal lives, if we tracked the amount that we spend on social media per day, we would probably be astounded at the percentages.  It is a black hole that can steal valuable time on more important tasks if we aren't employing limits on ourselves.  

How does one make use of social media effectively without allowing it to become a tyrant with our time?  Cal Newport suggests some surprising but interesting solutions in his book that I'll not divulge here.  I encourage you to read the book.  Some things he touches on are rituals, downtime, embracing boredom, scheduling internet use, accountability, and working like Teddy Roosevelt.  

In another aspect, I wonder if the Deep Work aspect applies to our relationship with God. Are we making the time regularly to be in God's Word and allow Him to do that deep work in us, enabling us to become more like Him?  None of us is immune to the tyranny of the urgent, our busy work lives, the social sphere, and daily life.  Is that why God has reminded us in the Psalms to "Be still, and know that I am God!"  and "Be still in the presence of the LORD...".  As our Creator, He knows that we are only dust and that physically, emotionally, and spiritually we need times of quiet and deep focus on who God is.  This allows His restoring work that King David spoke of in Psalm 23: 

"The LORD is my shepherd;

I have all that I need.

He lets me rest in green meadows;

He leads me beside peaceful streams.

He renews my strength..."

When this is our priority, our performance and quality of life is enhanced.  We are able to deep focus and do our best work.  The world needs more of this kind of living!

Live bravely and beautifully!

Art and Fear

Tree Trimmers with a Bucket Truck

(by a 5 year old artist friend)

Remember when you were in Kindergarten and the task of drawing anything was pure joy?  Nothing daunted you in portraying the concepts you had in your head.  You charged into the project with confidence.   Now as an adult, you shrink from any kind of rendering and say the usual utterance, "I can't even draw a straight line!"  What happens along the way from childhood to adulthood that smothers and demolishes our creative endeavors?

For one thing, we become more self-conscious.  Suddenly we are no longer expressing ourselves freely, but are now aware that others are also creating and we start to compare our work with their work.  Alas...along comes the painful realization that maybe ours is not like theirs and is not "good enough"!  Ouch!  Away goes the pencil and paper, the crayons, the brush, the clay and we shut the door to that part of our lives.

Right now I am privileged to see mass production on a daily basis by the little five year old artist who portrayed the work above.  He is prolific!  Nothing daunts him.  If he gets an idea, off he runs to the well-stocked paper supply shelf.  Back at his table with head bent down, his hands are busy depicting the latest inspiration.  Then comes the jubilant and elaborate detailed account of what the drawing is all about.  It is precious to experience and inspires me in my art production.  My goal with my little artist friend is to keep the creative fires burning, to help him deal with creative works that disappoint him, to work with some that are fixable, and to keep moving on to the next work of art.  I hope he never loses that exuberance and confidence!

What are some tips that can help nudge you back onto the creative path?

1.  Recognize that everyone experiences insecurity and fear about what they create.  

2.  Just sit down and do something.  You are not going after a masterpiece.  You just want to create something that expresses what you are thinking or feeling about a subject.  Set a timer and draw for 15 minutes.  Do that every day for a week.  Keep a small sketchbook handy for those odd moments when you are waiting for something and capture a gesture or a leaf shape.  I was in a busy grocery store line that was slowly moving.  I whipped out my tiny sketchbook and quickly sketched the harried cashier.  

3.  Creativity involves a battle.  Steven Pressfield wrote his famous book encouraging artists called The War of Art.  He dealt with the issues of resistance in an artist's thinking to creating art work.  He said, "Creative work is a gift to the world and every being in it.  Don't cheat us of your contribution.  Give us what you've got."

Chris Orwig had this to say about creativity in his wonderful book, The Creative Fight:  

"The creative spark can easily get snuffed out.  It must be tended to like a campfire on a cold and rainy day.

"You have to go after [creativity] it to claim its prize.  Creativity requires a fight....it is about effort ...the secrets to becoming more creative are always accompanied by habit, practice, and work."

So grab your pen or pencil and join my 5 year old artist friend in the joys and wonder of freely creating.  And don't give me that "but I can't draw a straight line" excuse!  Straight lines are boring!  If you can write your name, you can learn to draw.  

Live bravely and beautifully!

Those Moments Add Up!

(Acrylic study of an elk)

"There's just not enough time!"  Is that a statement that you may have uttered regarding some project you have desired to accomplish?  We all have ideas on our bucket lists that we'd like to achieve at some point in our lives, but so much of daily life and the tyranny of the urgent seems to keep kicking those ideas down the road into the future.  

May I share with you a powerful little quote by Erwin McManus that acts as a regular encouragement in the creative fight for me?  Here it is:

"Life is the total sum of what you do with the moments given you."

Time and again those words have acted as a goad to my decision making when it comes to getting art work created.  For some number of years I was working full-time in schools in Colorado, so time for art creation was minimal.  But I took as a goal to get in 20 hours a week in my studio working and studying on art.  I drew up little circles and divided them into 4 segments.  Each segment was 15 minutes of work, making a circle equal one hour.  Here's a sample:

These acted as time sheets for me.  By them I could assess my use of time and be encouraged by seeing how much could be accomplished by redeeming 15 minutes here and there in my week.  I saw how that adds up!  Now I use a notebook to record the amount of time spent in different aspects of my art endeavors.  Here's a sample of that:  

Art is a solitary endeavor normally.  Whatever is going to be created is up to me.  I must put in the time and engage in the creative fight if anything worthwhile is going to result.  So I have found that keeping a record of my creative time use keeps me accountable.  The artist Chuck Close made a statement about artists and their work habits that really resonates with me:

"True inspiration is for amateurs.  The rest of us just show up and get to work."

I also find a grip on creative time from what Annie Dillard has written in The Writing Life:

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.  What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.  A schedule defends from chaos and whim.  It is a net for catching days."

So here's one of the current creative endeavors I've been doing in the time I can carve out of my work week:  

This is a 24" x 36" woodburning I'm doing of a moose.  It all happens incrementally, like that saying:  "The wheels of progress grind slowly, but they grind!"

Also, the wisest man ever, King Solomon wrote this about time usage in Proverbs 10:4:  

"Little by little the diligent make it happen."

So be encouraged and take action on that creative desire, even if it is a moment here and there at a time!

Live bravely and beautifully! 

Hurricanes, Typhoons, and Calm

Sunday afternoon found me enjoying a calm, crisp, sunny autumn day watching the incoming tide splash against the shoreline.  The beach was fairly quiet except for a few clam diggers here and there.  I enjoyed drawing in my nature journal and beholding the idyllic scenery.  

At the same time, thousands of miles away, Hurricane Matthew was battering the Caribbean and inflicting tremendous devastation.  Over near South Korea a typhoon was wreaking havoc.  What a paradox weather can be....sunny and pleasant or terrifying and dangerous! Some may wonder if God is really in control of the weather, and if so, why does He allow the terrible suffering?  How can He be a good God with a track record like that?  

Those are serious questions to ponder.  A man named Job also encountered serious damage from severe weather.  A major storm took out his oldest son's home, collapsing it on all sides and killing all ten of Job's children inside.  Job went on to suffer the loss of all he owned and endured great physical misery.  He, devout man that he was, ventured to ask God why there was evil in the world.  In a very interesting dialogue, God responded to Job's questions.  You can read about it in the book of Job in the Bible.  God made it clear to Job that He was in control of nature and that His ultimate purposes could be trusted. 

We live in a fallen world that has such "natural disasters" like earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes.  These are the results of the curse operating in nature.  The pain and sorrow experienced demonstrate the imperfect world we inhabit.  But even in this imperfect world, God demonstrates His involvement.  David wrote in Psalm 148:8 that "fire and hail, snow and clouds, wind and weather obey Him."  Job modeled the best response to adversity.  He didn't blame God for it.  Instead he chose to trust God's goodness even though at the time he didn't understand the "Why?".   Job responded, "The Lord gave me what I had, and the Lord has taken it away.  Praise the name of the Lord!"  Later in the dialogue after God had asked Job a series of questions, Job acknowledged that he was in way over his head in understanding the mighty purposes of God in his life.  

Our hearts go out to those suffering from the devastating storms and our prayers are for them and those engaged in helping to bring relief.  Their loss and sorrow is enormous and incomprehensible!

Live bravely and beautifully!