Essentialism (XII): Essence Of The Essentialist, Explore: Escape

"Without great solitude no serious work is possible." - Pablo Picasso

As I read through books written by authors Cal Newport and Matthew Crawford, I am confronted by the suggestion by both that one of the most fleeting of things in modern society is the ability to pay attention, which is generally created by 1) Space; 2) Silence, and 3) A lack of the constant chatter that is the very fabric of our electronic and media modern world.

It is this concept that McKeown picks up on in the Exploring portion of Essentialism, specifically "Escape".  The subtitle of this section is "The Perks of Being Unavailable".

He starts this chapter with the example of a founder/CEO of marketing company, Conversations, which once a month has a meeting where all employees come together - media free.  No phones, no e-mail, no agenda.  They simply think and talk.  At the time of writing, it occurred regularly on the first Monday of every month and was known by their clients as "Do-Not-Call-Monday".

There are two purposes to this meeting.  The first is to give employees the ability to figure and review what is truly essential.  The founder also uses it as a litmus test for time spent by employees on the non-essential: "If someone can't make the meeting because too much is going on, that tells me we are either doing something inefficiently or we need to hire more people."

We need space, posits McKeown, in order to discern the vital few from the trivial many.  In a world filled with constant inputs clamoring for our attention, that space needs to be consciously designated and designed.  Seldom will it just "happen".

What does the Essentialist do with this space?  They explore their options.

Exploration does not take place in a vacuum of course.  We need a place to explore, something that is set up in a way to allow us to think deeply alone or in discussion with individuals and small groups as needed.  For some, this can be consciously designed spaces that are set up in a way to facilitate (or force) conversation like specially designed rooms or areas that encourage thought and small groups or spaces like "quiet rooms" where the absence of noise is emphasized.

We need space to explore and to concentrate on our exploration.  This is not so much a physical space (although it can be) as much as it is a mental space where we set aside distractions for the matter at hand. McKeown points to the example of Sir Isaac Newton, who spent almost two years in complete isolation writing what we know as the laws of gravitation and motion.  When asked how it he did it, he replied "By thinking on it continually" - "In other words, Newton created space for concentration, and this uninterrupted space allowed him to explore the essential elements of the universe."

When, asks McKeown, was the last time you took five minutes out of your day to just sit and think?  Not compose an e-mail or make a list of things needing to be done or replaying a conversation in your mind, but "...(set) aside distraction-free time in a distraction-free space to do absolutely nothing but think?"  Not only that, he suggests - but as we get busier and things move faster, the more it becomes crucial for us to build thinking time into our schedules and the spaces to focus on them.

Part of that, suggests McKeown, is simply changing our perspective from our schedule controlling us to us controlling our schedule.

Finally, says McKeown, we need space to read.

Without reading - be it books, articles, journals and attendant thinking and pondering (or some version of listening to the same, given the technological world in which we live), we not only lose out on relevant information to our particular situation and lives, we lose the ability to "broaden our perspective" and see themes of life beyond our own narrow windows.  His only recommendation is "...to select something was written before our hyperconnected era and yet seems timeless.  Such writings can challenge our assumptions about what really matters."

(Of note, McKeown says he prefers inspirational literature such as Zen, The Reason of Unknown; The Wisdom of Confucius; the Torah; the Bible; Tao, to Know and Not Be Knowing; The Meaning of the Glorious Koran:  An Explanatory Translation; As a Man Thinketh; The Essential Gandhi; Walden, or Life in the Woods; the Book of Mormon; The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius; and the Upanishads.  It is quite a list).

His final admonition:  "Whether you can invest two hours a day, two weeks a year, or even five minutes every morning, it is important to make space to escape in your busy life."

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Application:

I outed myself a bit by indicating that this is something I am already thinking about based on books that I have recently read or are reading. This idea of making "space" was a bit more focused on "making space to do things", but the principle is the same.

A lot of it for me is wrapped up in a lack of inputs, which can lead to silence, which is what I need to think.  In my case, that looks a lot like working on shutting down how often I check my phone for everything, what I follow on the InterWeb (it is rapidly dwindling), reducing social media as we have spoken on before, and learning to do activities without having background noise (usually a Tube of You video) going on in the background.  

In terms of space, it is having a place to "work", which is the extra bedroom that J the Rabbit generously shares with us.  It is also re-starting post-vacation the habits of morning walks in my local neighborhood and middle of the day walks at work.

Reading.  It should be no surprise that I am big fan of this, and there is something to reading in the morning that gets things off to a good start.  I regularly read the Bible (doing the "Bible in a year" plan).  In terms of other readings, I tend to choose things that break into short sections that are make for good organized readings in a week or two weeks.  Books that I have repeatedly read in this fashion have included The Art of War by Sun Tzu, A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, An Iron Will by Orison Swett Marden, and  The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching! by Jeffery Gitomer.  I have also tried longer texts, like the works of Epictetus, but having to make a break is the middle of the section make it difficult for me to pick up the next day.

I have also started making sure I find time in the evening (now usually before bed) to do the same exercise.  In this case it is reading and taking notes on the book, something I have not really done in almost 25 years.  I am finding this helps to round out my day.

I do not know I am quite to where I need to be in getting the full value out of these activities, but I am on my way.