Be Here Now
I started a new job recently, the first full-time gig in quite some time for me.
The biggest challenge for the job is being present, although I don’t think it is a new pursuit by any means. It almost seems we live in a world that thrives in the myths of multitasking and connectedness. Especially at high-tech jobs, we live at networked computers that are always ready to go.
Our jobs require us to be surfing the web, so the challenge is to commit to that moment. Go to the page the job requires, do that task and, when I’m finished, go to the next page.
It is easy to quickly check FaceBook, MySpace, pop onto my webmail client for jeffwalsh.com, or any other distraction. But I’m trying to resist. My goal is to stay focused on the job for the full eight hours.
I mention I haven’t done a full-time job in a while, but that’s not entirely relevant because at previous jobs there was also no such division. At my last full-time job, we used an AIM client to talk within our team, and I used the same login name as I give out on Oasis and to friends, so there was a constant blurring of work, personal, Oasis, etc.
I commute to this new gig a few days a week, and today, I noticed people who work on the bus and it is that same shift. You look up and someone is writing e-mail. Two minutes later, they are playing Solitaire over the e-mail. Look again, back to e-mail. Next time, they are surfing dish patterns.
This pattern seems to exist everywhere. When I recently went to see Panic at the Disco in concert, it was amazing how much time was spent by their most ardent fans texting throughout the show, and taking pictures on cell phones (I’ve never seen one that looks worth the effort, quite honestly). If you’re really into the band and their music, and one of the band members brings their guitar right in front of you, it seems like a perfect time to drink in that moment, possibly make eye contact, smile, sing along… and not necessarily grab a fuzzy 1 megapixel snapshot to post on your MySpace. We’re capturing moments to post in the future without letting them fully be realized in the present.
I download stuff to watch on my computer, some of it broadcast stuff I missed or things from other countries that I otherwise wouldn’t have access to. In the past few weeks, I’ve determined to watch everything full-screen instead of my usual method, which is to make it as wide as possible while leaving just a sliver of desktop to play tetris.
I try and do that with everything, with varied results. I don’t bring my cell phone to this new job except for days whereby I’m meeting people for dinner afterwards and might need to sync up. Otherwise, it’s pointless for me.
I’m also still juggling how to balance this new gig with working on the novel (hasn’t been an issue) and getting to the gym (the bigger casualty), and it’s kind of surprising (but not really), that on days when I commute, the novel is done quickly and effortlessly. But on days when I work from home, and don’t have to wake up as early, the novel is often put off until closer to my start time, or after my shift entirely.
So, it’s all a work in progress, but in a specific direction.
I’d talk more about it, but I’m hourly, at my desk in the offices of my new job, and it’s 9 a.m.
It’s time for me to focus my attention somewhere else now.
