Last week I talked about consuming content and how your library should be about the stuff you want to learn instead of a performative shelf of stuff you’ve read. One key point I mentioned was that if I owned a book, but had read it and taken good notes on it I better have a good reason to keep it on my shelf taking up space.
Today we’ll talk about the first assumption that must be true if you want to take good notes.
You have to have time to be good at anything
I’ve already written an whole book on getting focus time back in my days fully subscribing to the productivity guru mindset. While I stand by much of the advice in the book still, some of it reaches into the realm of unreality for those that simply want to optimize every minute, which I no longer think is good or possible.
Still, to do a good job at anything you must put in the time needed to be good. I couldn’t be a fast cyclist without 10 hours a week of training in the winter season and 12 – 15 in the summer. Without riding 200 – 300km a week I wouldn’t have a chance at finishing our big 320km ride at the end of the summer.
Days could stretch out like an uninterrupted blank canvas to pursue your life’s passions. instead, we’re left carving out what I call “sacred blocks”: one hour here, two hours there—if you’re lucky. Attention Wars
The same goes for reading and taking notes and making connections, if you don’t allocate time for these practices you won’t get better at them. If you have distractions like kids that won’t sleep then it’s going to be even harder, in fact if you’re in that phase of your life it’s a struggle to survive with your relationships intact.
If that’s where you’re at right now, give yourself grace. Get through the days being a good parent and good employee so you can feed your family. All this other nonsense about “crushing it” is going to need to wait a few years. You may only have “sacred blocks” or “fringe hours” for this season of your life.
You need more than fringe hours
A few years ago I read The Fringe Hours which had one fatal assumption much of the world makes when it comes to the time allotted for yourself or creative work. Jessica Turner assumes that we can only ever expect time on the fringes, stolen from other parts of our life. This is especially true for women who will say they can’t get away for a weekend due to family obligations1, often while their husbands have guys weekends and getting “me time” far more often than they’d ever be okay with if it was their female partner.
Men go for this because it’s the easy path, accepting a low bar for a father participating in childrearing2. Men, stop being children and start stepping in.
I firmly believe that none of us should accept that we’ll only ever get “fringe hours” for our whole life to do the things that we enjoy. This is double so for women, who deserve far more freedom of time than they are often able to use.
Tactics that help with time and focus
I’ve found timeblocking to be helpful, but only if you cut distractions as much as possible. If you’re timeblocking you’d set aside a specific time and then only do the thinking/reading/work you have planned during that time.
Environment change can be helpful as well. I work most of the day at a main desk with multiple monitors and then turn 90 degrees to the side to write on a different desk with another device. Currently this is my iPad but I’ve tried a few other computers I have in this position. The big thing is different keyboard and less screen space to help me focus. I’ve also had success with going to a coffee shop with some headphones and a specific task in mind I want to accomplish while I’m there.
No second desk, write in a specific part of your home and if possible only write and think there. Don’t even have a chair you can dedicate to your thinking time, change your desktop background or use specific music during your time to think and read. Just do something to give yourself a cue so you know it’s time to focus on taking notes.
If you’re looking for more ideas check out my reading list for focus.
Routines help
I’m rereading Atomic Habits (my original review) right now and the thing that’s sticking out is setting up easy routines to help you accomplish your goals. This is the oft-quoted rule to get your running shoes out the night before so that you are more likely to run in the morning. I have a chair for reading and a specific notebook to take notes in for my physical books. My notebook is beside the chair and everything I need to take notes on books is sitting there waiting for me.
What is your routine for thinking going to be? Where will you sit? What music will you listen to? How can you set this up in advance to make the act of sitting and thinking/writing have less friction?
Maybe you move your laptop to the spot you’ll sit so that it’s not at your desk. You close out all the apps that were for work and change the background wallpaper to signify it’s time to write. Put the TV remote in a cupboard in the kitchen and shut off your wifi so you aren’t tempted to watch something unrelated to the work you want to do.
Overloaded on good
A final consideration is how many things you’re doing, which leave you with only short spaces of stolen time. Often in isolation all these things are good. You’re going to book club, reading for a second online book club, driving kids to dance, going out with friends…whatever your combination of good things is. All these noble efforts add up to a life with no space.
At my home it’s driving kids to dance and figure skating while my wife works. Riding bikes, making dinner, cleaning the kitchen, and then somewhere in that busy life I want to read/write. During the summer I was frustrated with my lack of thinking/reading but then realized I had been on some awesome bike trips and maybe that should be enough because when the snow flies I’d stop riding so much and then have time to get back to my creative endeavours.
This extends to work with always being asked to be “creative” which can be coded language used by your boss for doing more work without more pay and with less staff. We always say we’re busy with work as a badge of honour, while lamenting the lack of time to accomplish tasks we see of high value.
If you want time to pursue quiet creativity you’re going to have to say no to things, even good things. You’ll have to say no to volunteering at school, or you’ll have to tell someone you can’t join the latest book club or games night. Every time you say yes to these things while lamenting your lack of creative time you’re really telling yourself that you don’t value the quiet creative time more than the things you’ve said yes to.
I’ve said no to coaching this year. While I enjoy it the meetings often break up my days that were clear for focused work. I said no to helping out at school regularly instead contributing by helping purchase books for the library.
How do you clear some space for creative time?
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