Happy New Year to one and all!
The arrival of a fresh year stretching its twelve pristine months into the future invites me to make plans.
Look at that enormous expanse of unsullied time, I think. Plenty of time for me to finish the draft of my NaNo novel, split it into three pieces, and flesh out the trilogy...
and research and draft my Pet Novel Project that I'd begun before NaNo...
and edit two clients' projects...
and write books for two other clients...
and write another spec script...
and research literary agents and managers, pinpoint the right ones for my work, craft brilliant introductory query letters, and have them fight over the right to represent me...
and plan the Writing Workshops I'll be teaching...
and promote the book I helped Ryan Gingerich write, which is due for release in March...
and get the movie of "Against the Wind," the screenplay I co-wrote about the life of running legend Dick Beardsley into production...
This is how my thoughts get me into trouble. Because, suddenly, those 365 beautiful, blank days seem pitiful and small and entirely unable to support all the things I want to accomplish when they visit.
I -- like so many writers -- want to do too much. This poses the very real danger of spreading myself too thinly, of starting too many projects, and consequently failing to finish much of anything.
The name of the game is Prioritizing. Instead of asking "What do I want to do this next year?" I must address the issues of "What will I commit to completing this year?" Which is somehow scarier. In many ways, it's easier to have a million Things I Want To Do than to have two or three Things I Will Move Heaven and Earth to Accomplish.
This has led me to think seriously about how to help myself and the writers with whom I work to meet our goals for the next year. I have a plan percolating. I think it will work. I'll add it to the Things I Want To Do, and unveil it next week...
Till then: I encourage you to write down the things you will commit to this next year. Feel free to post them in the comments, if you wish, but write them down. Then let's work together to make our dreams reality.
Happy 2010!
Showing posts with label multitasking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label multitasking. Show all posts
Friday, January 01, 2010
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
The Myth of Multi-Tasking
or, Hang Up and Write!
Dr. John J. Medina knows why you haven't finished writing your novel.
Medina -- a developmental molecular biologist, research consultant, affiliate Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and the director of the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research at Seattle Pacific University -- has made the study of the human brain his business. Among many of the fascinating things he has discovered about how we assimilate and process information is this salient point:
The brain cannot pay attention to more than one thing at a time.
In other words: multi-tasking is a myth.
Medina's new book Brain Rules: 12 Steps for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, explains that what we call "multi-tasking" is actually "task switching." In order to respond to an IM, for instance, you must first switch from the task at hand -- answering e-mail, doing laundry, talking on the phone, or -- OOoop! -- writing that chapter. Every "switch" takes time. Trying to simultaneously do many things requires multiple switches, which can actually make us less productive instead of more so.
In the Real World, our inability to pay attention to more than one thing at a time is the reason that talking on a cell phone significantly elevates a driver's risk of being involved in an accident.
In the Writer's World, this explains why I can spend an entire day "working" -- answering e-mails, sending out queries, teleconferencing, networking, doing research, making notes -- but not get any actual writing accomplished.
If I understand Medina correctly, the way to get more of my writing accomplished is to ::gulp:: take my mom's advice from when I was in school: turn off the music, stop passing notes to my friends, get off the phone, and get to work.
My novel calls. Gonna take Mr. Medina's (and Mom's) advice. How 'bout you?
Dr. John J. Medina knows why you haven't finished writing your novel.
Medina -- a developmental molecular biologist, research consultant, affiliate Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and the director of the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research at Seattle Pacific University -- has made the study of the human brain his business. Among many of the fascinating things he has discovered about how we assimilate and process information is this salient point:
The brain cannot pay attention to more than one thing at a time.
In other words: multi-tasking is a myth.
Medina's new book Brain Rules: 12 Steps for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, explains that what we call "multi-tasking" is actually "task switching." In order to respond to an IM, for instance, you must first switch from the task at hand -- answering e-mail, doing laundry, talking on the phone, or -- OOoop! -- writing that chapter. Every "switch" takes time. Trying to simultaneously do many things requires multiple switches, which can actually make us less productive instead of more so.
In the Real World, our inability to pay attention to more than one thing at a time is the reason that talking on a cell phone significantly elevates a driver's risk of being involved in an accident.
In the Writer's World, this explains why I can spend an entire day "working" -- answering e-mails, sending out queries, teleconferencing, networking, doing research, making notes -- but not get any actual writing accomplished.
If I understand Medina correctly, the way to get more of my writing accomplished is to ::gulp:: take my mom's advice from when I was in school: turn off the music, stop passing notes to my friends, get off the phone, and get to work.
My novel calls. Gonna take Mr. Medina's (and Mom's) advice. How 'bout you?
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