A Menu of Distractions
Making Choices, Tradeoffs, and Four Thousand Weeks
The library book I’m reading right now - Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman - is due in 5 days and I’m 37% done. The Libby app tells me I’m on track to finish the book in 2 hours and 57 minutes.
I’m also 5% through a reread of book 5 of the Innkeeper Chronicles by Ilona Andrews. It will likely take me maybe 3 hours to finish it.
Over this past week I spent over 12 hours playing board games with friends. Three hours at a wood turning class. A two hour phone call with a friend.
There have been a few large blocks focused on client projects or personal projects. Smaller scatterings of pebble piles of tiny tasks, admin items, life things adding texture, sticky points, and structure to the flow of days. Sand in the hourglass slipping through the 168 hours of the week.
Lots of chunks of time with a menu of distractions.
Distractions braking my concentration for better or worse. Some breaks are wanted and helpful like a snack, a walk, or a stretch break that feels satisfying and renewing. Others are more unwelcome and unwanted.
And whether the distraction is welcome or unwelcome depends on what it’s distracting me from and what it’s pulling my attention and concentration too.
It’s all relative I think.
The next 168 hours is lightly laid out with a few anchor points and yet is an unknown. A collection of client work, life tasks, and social plans already chosen. Pre-selected and prioritized to help me make progress toward a desired outcome.
Trade-offs have been made and more will be made. How much time will this task take? What’s more important? What’s urgent? What’s my capacity?
There are external variables in play that always cause shifts and changes.
And the menu of distractions for the week
- Dog walks regardless of weather
- The competing and conflicting desires to finish designing a client thing, write that other personal thing, and connect with people IRL.
- Emails requesting actions and responses
- Texts and messages from friends
- Completing my taxes
- Wordle and Connections NYTimes games
- And a myriad of podcasts, communities, and content I could consume
- And I’ll finish both books in the next week.
What does your menu of distractions look like?
