Squirrel!
The reference is from the movie Up, which if you haven’t seen, you should go watch now. For those who haven’t yet experienced its awesomeness, one of the characters is prone to be ing distracted by squirrels. In the middle of conversations, in the middle of important action, at the worst possible moment: squirrel!
What was I saying? Well. Let’s just say he’s relatable. I’m easily distracted by anything new,shiny, different, or puzzling. Multi-tasking is my best defense. I often have five tasks going on at once, projects that take up different parts of my brain and require different time scales for completion. When the mental space is filled, there’s less room for squirrels to creep in. It’s second nature to find ways to finish work quickly and in tandem with other jobs so that I have enough things to focus on.
Paradoxically, concentration itself is the thing most likely to distract me from things I should be doing. (work I’m being paid to do, f’rex, or personal hygiene routines) I can’t explain why, but it’s true. Concentration is distracting.
Building a website, mastering a new physical skill, finishing a scene, working through a rough patch of edits…anything that catches my full attention runs the risk of overriding every other thought. Ideas that get past the initial squirrel threshold suck me in and swallows me whole.
Which means I forget all about everything else. I call it mental inertia. I am strong in that particular force. Dragging myself away from whatever I’m doing is not easy.
Look how hard it is for me to stop writing once I start.
Time: 11:30 PM
Tea: Tazo Ginger Spice. Yes, decaf. (Tea bag too.)
Steeped: 9 minutes.
One response to “Distraction & Concentration”
I have half finished parodies sitting on my plate constantly. I have found that I cannot force the words onto the paper. I write what I can, let it simmer and return when I can. Turn my attention to other projects, for instance the ongoing task of sorting and purging paper or simply making some peanut butter banana bread or doing the dishes (such a weirdo, I actually love doing the dishes). In a nutshell (squirrel) I know I accomplish more if I work on varied projects as my mental compass invariably changes my direction.