Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.
Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.
”What’s 43 Folders?”
43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.
Switching 'modes'
josh | Feb 13 2006
One of the big problems I have is switching "modes" at work. I'm a graduate student, so my work has at least four modes: 1. Teaching. This is a super-extroverted activity; lots of talking, lots of people. Afterwards I am exhausted. Now, in a given day, I have to do all of these things, often multiple times. So today, for example, I met some tutees in the morning, attended a lecture, read about 100 pages, worked a little on my dissertation, and so on. My problem is that I am _very_ inefficient when I transition from one mode to another. So, after meeting a student this afternoon, I had trouble just sitting down and reading, which is what I have to do next; instead I had to check email, scrwe around on the web, and so on to 'cool off' and clear my head before starting in on my reading work. Do other people have this problem? What do you do to switch modes more effectively? I'm interested in rituals, patterns you've noticed--anything, really. 4 Comments
POSTED IN:
Something you said about rituals...Submitted by stevecooper on February 14, 2006 - 2:43am.
Something you said about rituals popped something in my brain about this; You've got four distinct roles; why not associate them with distinct places, items, and rituals? If you think of each role as a different fictional character, each one gets his own costume, props, and sets, which keeps them distinct. So, when you're reading, select a particular chair or corner of a room and sit there. If you're going to make a drink, have a particular cup you use while reading. Take off any formal clothing like ties and jackets. Keep out of sight of your writing desk. Then, when you do tutorials, grab a particular pad and pen, use a different coffee cup, put on a jacket or some other particular piece of clothing you wear at no other time. When you write, get neat and organised, maybe in contrast with a relaxed and slobby reading environment. The idea is to get your brain to associate the different situations with different states of mind. Once you get used to reading in a particular way and giving tutorials in a particular way, it's easier for your brain to know what it's 'supposed' to do in a particular situation. They advice insomniacs not to do read in bed for precisely this reason; insomniacs associate bed with alert activities, so they find it harder to sleep. Once bed is for sleep and the living room is for reading, the right situation triggers the right behaviour. Hope that helps. » POSTED IN:
|
|
EXPLORE 43Folders | THE GOOD STUFF |