I was driving to a meeting today when I came to an odd realization. Often times we (or at least *I*) think about things in terms of "do I have time to do this, or do I have time to do that?" But it's really not about time--at least not for me. It's about attention. Or maybe focus?
I used to think that people who said "I don't have time to do that" were just trying to sound technical in saying they had no time. But the more I think about it, I think that at least some of them suffer from a lack of attention bandwidth, not time.
At least that's how I feel much of the time. It seems that the amount of stuff I can assimilate, accomplish, and otherwise occupy myself with in a productive way is limited by my ability to deal with it all, not hours in the day/week/month. For example, I often end up screwing around doing useless stuff when I have more pressing things to attend to.
And I've always had too many things that I wanted to get into. Lots of stuff interests me. It's been like this since college. But even if I had time, I just don't think I could do it all.
Posted by jzawodn at September 25, 2003 08:02 PM
"For example, I always end up screwing around doing useless stuff when I have more pressing things to attend to."
I wouldn't let Andy hear you say that...
Good point. I've fixed the wording to say what I meant to say.
I know exactly what you mean. Sure, it might be part procrastination, but that's not all of it. There's some other underlying cause to the attention deficit. I'm not making any ADD claims here, but sometimes just can't focus on anything productive. For me, it somes in spurts. Like I'll be productive as hell for a few months and then semi-productive for the next few. Weird stuff.
Hmm, the more I read your diary the more I realise that I'm not the only wierdo out there, as I can related to this exactly :D I find myself distracted far to easily because there is so much interesting stuff to see and learn I tend to sometimes struggle on focusing on one thing only. :D For example I've got way to many hobbies ...
How ironic it is then that I am screwing around reading this blog rather than get some work done. I do know what you mean, there are so many new things out there to know and learn that you have to balance time between assimilation and application.
I find that fatigue will do this to me--if I get to bed late (because, say, I decided to watch to the end of the commentary version of The Meaning of Life instead of going to sleep) it'll kill me the next day. It's not that I'll be tired, or incapable of reactively doing things, just that I can't focus enough to actively do things. (So tech support's possible, but new development's really tough)
I think what you're trying to say is that your ability to do high-level, task-specific, critical thinking is limited by the amount of energy you have available. So sometimes, you end up doing semi-mindless stuff because you just don't have the mental wherewithall to focus on a task that requires applied critical thinking.
I think what you're trying to say is that your ability to do high-level, task-specific, critical thinking is limited by the amount of energy you have available. So sometimes, you end up doing semi-mindless stuff because you just don't have the mental wherewithall to focus on a task that requires applied critical thinking.
That's an interesting question indeed you are raising. YOU CAN not eat your cake and have it. THere is always a cake and time to eat it, all you are to do is to plan both things - which cake and how long. THis IS A MATTER OF SELF DICIPLINE TO MY MIND EVENTUALLY.
