The Blur—Is It Harming Our Ability To Focus?

 Once upon a time, fall was the dividing line between summer vacation and school. Now most schools resume in August, nipping at summer’s heels. This divide has been blurred, if not erased. In the white-collar world, weekends and vacations were once held sacrosanct, a time for family, friends, and rejuvenation, not to be interrupted except for a true emergency. Now I see my nieces and nephews tethered to their jobs nights, weekends and vacation days by cell phones and laptops. The divide between their work lives and private lives has vanished.

Do shorter summer breaks make our young students smarter? Does the inability to escape professional demands for short time periods make us more productive?

Perhaps I’m just not good at multi-tasking. Maybe it’s a defect that I long for those old-time borders that are not crossed without good reason. As an author, I wish peer and publisher expectations would give writers a little more slack to disappear from social media for weeks at a time to write. Perhaps then the promotion, when it comes, would be more exuberant, more creative. But it’s now considered a no-no for authors to hibernate for weeks (and certainly not months) to focus on drafting or fine-tuning a manuscript. To be successful, we’re told we must spend time every day—or at least several times a week—on social networking and promotion.  And, if we do take a creative sabbatical or vacation, we must apologize for our absence on social media, our failure to re-tweet, share posts, comment on blogs.

I just attended a Writers Police Academy (a terrific experience), and one of the speakers was Dr. Katherine Ramsland, a forensic psychologist and the author of more than 40 books, many relating to how our minds work. In her presentation, Dr. Ramsland said only one percent of people can genuinely multitask. What's more, she noted that habitual attempts at multitasking can damage our ability to focus and concentrate.

Since I'm writing a blog, I obviously believe in participating in social media. However, how much time should be devoted to it is a question I need to answer. How many of you (authors or other professionals) would like to disconnect from social media for a stretch of time—with no apologies—to concentrate on creative endeavors? If this is one of your daydreams, what’s stopping you? Would your networking/promotional efforts truly suffer if you took the occasional sabbatical?

 

Finding Balance

I tend to be an all-or-nothing kind of person. When I set my mind on a goal, I pursue it without reserve. For instance, in high school, I loved science. I loved it so much, I dropped AP English so I could take AP Biology and AP Chemistry. I joined the Science Club and baked superconductors in the school kiln.

But I’ll never forget a scholarship interview I had with some engineers. They laughed that I had included some awards for poetry in my scholarship portfolio. “A poetry writing engineer.” I can still feel the heat in my face as one man shook his head in disbelief.

Only a few months later I attended a Department of Energy science camp at Lawrence Berkley Laboratory and realized what a life of science might mean for me – sleeping on a cot in the lab so I could run experiments day and night. I knew I wanted more out of life than a lab.

Once again, that all-or-nothing side of me kicked in, and I turned my back on science in pursuit of the written word. I immersed myself in Stephen King, Anne Rice, Jean Auel, and Andre Norton. I majored in English in college, and even started my first novel as my senior thesis. Fantasy, Romance, Horror. I wanted to write it all.

Now, twenty years later (yes, that’s telling my age a little) I have finally found my “voice.” And guess what? It happens to be smack dab in the middle of my two favorite subjects – science and fiction. I guess the pendulum had to swing both ways before coming to rest.

Do you have a passion that influences other parts of your life? How have you found a balance?

© Tam Linsey, 2011. All rights reserved.

Cross posted at www.TamLinsey.com