I started reading Cal Newport’s new book called Digital Minimalism this week . I’m always challenged by Cal to seriously consider how I am using my time and my own relationship with technology. His previous book, Deep Work, emphasized how vital it is in the 21st century to have sustained periods of focused (not fragmented) attention to produce valuable work. Cal writes,
“We cannot allocate our attention to multiple things at once and expect it to function at the same level as it would were we to focus on just one activity. Two tasks cannot possibly be in the attentional foreground at the same time. One will inevitably end up being the focus, and the other - or others - more akin to irrelevant noise, something to be filtered out. Or worse still, none will have the focus and all will be, albeit slightly clearer, noise, but degrees of noise all the same.” (source)
I’m mindful of this undercurrent of digital noise in my own life. I think about the long term result of an attention span that is always fragmented, and distracted by a continual onslaught of digital noise …my e-mail that pops up every 10 minutes, text messages etc…I frequently work with more than 10 tabs open on my computer at once, usually several windows open. I definitely have fragmented attention.
Austin Kleon quotes Edward Tufte. this week stating, “Do not start your day with addictive time vampires such as The New York Times, email, Twitter….All scatter eye and mind, produce diverting vague anxiety, clutter short term memory.”
Digital noise is exactly that. It is NOISE. It clutters our minds and scatters our thoughts.
Pamela Paul’s New York Times article, Let Children Get Bored Again, shares an interview of Lin-Manuel Miranda where he credits “his unattended afternoons with fostering inspiration.”…Because there is nothing better to spur creativity than a blank page or an empty bedroom,” he said. ..”
In all of this I hear the need for silence, for quiet space..for solitude. The digital clutter that invades our minds, captures and fragments our attention, destroys our moments of solitude, and sends our thoughts and emotions fluttering…it is SILENCE that I need and that I want for myself and for my children. Protecting my time and not letting the digital wave clutter my thoughts, emotions and steal my focus.
I’m reminded of a very poignant section from CS Lewis’ book, Mere Christianity where he talks about this initial rising in the morning and our thoughts, concerns and worries coming at us like wild animals. He writes:
The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. and the first job each morning consists simply in shovelling them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. and so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind. (source)
From solitude and quietness, we are able to focus, giving time and attention to valuable tasks. From boredom new ideas have room to form, observation and focus makes way for inspiration and creativity. I am always challenged to take control of my time, to seek wisdom. Psalm 90:12, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.”