February 2021
Hello from Orlando!
I’ve spent the last few weeks brainstorming ideas for the next book in the Blake Jordan series… trying to figure out where book #8 should start based on where #7 ended. There are a million directions it could go in. Most are wrong. A few could work. I need just a little more time to plan before I dig in and start writing. But I’m close, don’t worry!
Sometimes I feel guilty about taking time to plan my work before I start working my plan. But planning is important to me. It helps me think through the story before I spend months of my life writing it. I’ve always liked the Lincoln quote about planning:
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I’ll spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
Sharpening the axe can mean a lot of things to different people. It can mean getting organized… clearing your desk, getting everything you need before you start work on a new project. It can mean reading up on a topic your project is related to, doing research, learning how things work, making sure you’re ready before you get started.
For writers, it can mean outlining your story before you type the words ‘chapter one.’ After my last book, I realized I don’t need to know every single detail to move forward. And I found that not knowing everything before writing actually made the story more fun for me to write because writing into the dark is a lot like how a reader reads. Still, I like having a general idea of where I’m headed before I start.
For me, sharpening the axe means clearing my mind so I can focus on writing.
Last year for lent, I did a 40 day sugar fast. This year I’m 12 days in to a social media fast which is more than just not logging into Facebook… no, because I’m a glutton for punishment and I tend to take things to the extreme, I took it a step further and cut way back on my daily news consumption, too, which has been torture since I’m such a news junkie and I like to keep up with what’s happening in the world.
It got me thinking: how much would I miss if I disconnected completely for 40 days?
My guess is a lot.
But that might not be a bad thing.
Here’s what I’m realizing a week into my fast: attention is the new currency.
Think about it. How often do you get distracted from doing something you promised yourself you’d do today which you’ll decide to just do tomorrow (which never happens)?
In my case, it’s writing the next book.
But if you’re really honest with yourself, like I’m trying to be, you’ll see how distracted you truly are all of the time. I just checked my daily average usage on my phone over the last week. It was 2 hours and 93 ‘pick ups’ a day (the number of times I picked up my phone and looked at it hoping for a little dopamine rush like a rat finding cheese).
And my total screen time on my phone for the week was 15 hours with 650 pick ups.
Wow!
I know what you’re thinking. That’s ridiculous! And I’d have to agree. But then I’d say, you should check your own screen time stats, too. Because, as the clichéd villain says to the hero in a low, gravely voice, one way or another in pretty much every bad movie, “We’re not that different, you and me…”
But it’s not just our phones. It’s Facebook, it’s YouTube, it’s the news, it’s all of the rabbit trails we allow ourselves to go down that waste so much of our time every day.
It’s our attention that’s suffering.
I watched a really interesting documentary a while back called The Social Dilemma. (And if your easily distracted self just clicked on that link to watch the trailer before reading the rest of this newsletter, you’re in good company, I would’ve, too.)
Social media companies design their platforms to be addicting. Facebook studies you. They show posts they think will get a reaction out of you. YouTube’s default mode is to play the next video their algorithm thinks will keep you watching (which I’ve turned off). If you don’t, you’ll keep watching the next suggested cat video that that autoplays. Sure, these platforms are free. But if something’s free, it’s because you’re the product.
Think about that…
There’s only one way to stop it: by not allowing our attention to be pickpocketed.
Because attention truly is the new currency. The world no longer goes for your wallet. They want your attention now, first and foremost, more than anything else. Because they’ve figured out that once they have your attention, they have everything.
The truth is, if we want to do work that matters, we have to quiet our mind. We can’t hear our own ideas if our heads are filled with other people’s voices and opinions all the time. And we won’t see our dreams come true without a plan to keep us on track.
There is a balance, of course. Especially now when we’re all more isolated than ever before. If we totally shut ourselves off, we’ll miss out on important things going on in our friends’ lives and news we need to know about (and yes, maybe the occasional cat video to help us get through the day). But taking time to shut down the distractions and take a good, hard look at the things of this world that constantly demand our attention and keep us from creating things that are worthwhile is, I think, a very good thing. -Ken