Driven to distraction

Have you missed me? Well, I've missed you, blog readers.                                  

Where to start? Well, it's a funny thing. I have not felt a need to write for quite awhile. I think it's because I am getting my creative needs met by working tirelessly on the website for my new business. In the past few months, I have spent hundreds of hours planning, researching, and learning for my new business endeavor.

I am chomping at the bit to share my new website with you, but all sorts of obstacles have prevented it from getting finished. It's nearly there and I can hardly wait to unveil my business to the world and start taking in projects.

Unfortunately, I ran into multiple snafus with the guy I hired to help implement my web design. I'm not a web programmer, but I had ideas of how I wanted the site to look, so I hired someone to do the coding in order to free up my time to work on other aspects of my business. It's too depressing to go into detail, but suffice to say, as my graphic design associate, Ronnie Lebow observes, “The poor always pay twice.”

This means that I went with the company with the “most reasonable” price and I found out why they were so . . .  “reasonable.” I now have to hire someone else to tweak the site to fix the things that weren't done properly. Nevertheless, I am undaunted and excited about the final result (which should be next week some time, as long as Murphy's Law doesn't kick in again).

I have to ask myself why things always seem to go this way; I rarely have projects go perfectly, do you? Same thing happened when we were building a house in 1999. My husband, daughter (who was just entering third grade), and I moved into a 24-foot trailer on our property while my husband built the house, with some assistance from a few friends and other craftsmen. At the outset, hubby predicted we'd live in the trailer for say, oh, four months. EIGHTEEN months later, we moved into our not-quite-finished house. (No, that's not our house pictured above.)

By then, my husband and I were zombies. I had perfected the art of taking a two-minute shower with lukewarm water. I was especially proud of the way I “roughed it” by being able to climb over my husband's dead-to-the world body in the middle of the night, slip on my shoes, and head outside to relieve myself when the trailer tank was full and waiting to be pumped. I know, TOO MUCH INFORMATION, but I didn't go through all of that not to tell someone about it!

My point is this: by the time we moved into our house, we were too worn out to be upset about the delays and simply rejoiced that we could sleep in the house—even if it was on the floor—and the best part? Long, hot showers. What a luxury!

What else is new?

Well, I have been working on my photography and enjoying it very much. In fact, I joined a photography group that has monthly meet-ups in Seattle and attended my first get-together this week and learned a lot, mostly about the photography business (applicable to any small business owner, really). I've included a few of my recent photos in this blog entry.

I have also been reading a book that I highly recommend called, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.

Of course, you know that it's going to be a bit depressing because there is physiological evidence that the Internet is indeed changing our brains (look up neuroplasticity). There's so much interesting stuff in the book that I couldn't do justice to describe it here; you'll just have to read it.

My take-away at this point (I'm not quite finished with the book): I am more determined to shut down my email program while I'm working on other projects and to only check Facebook on a planned basis. I have perfected the art of being led from one thing to another and, before I know it, I've forgotten entirely what Step One was to begin with.

During the photography presentation I recently attended, business owners were admonished to ask: “Is this the best use of my time?” throughout the day. It's surprising (and somewhat depressing) to learn that the answer is often a definitive “No.” That is, if you're working on your business and not just setting aside time to take a break.

It's become all too obvious that I am continually distracted by using the Internet and it's changing my brain. I can tell, too. I sometimes feel that I've developed ADD (attention deficit disorder) because of the difficulty I have in focusing on reading long portions of books and other projects. I have this inane, urgent need to check my email, my Facebook, my smart phone when it's entirely inappropriate and unnecessary. It would be funny if it weren't so scary.

The upshot: I have great hand-eye coordination, but the part of my brain that is involved in deep thinking (and therefore, good at following information to a logical conclusion) is slowly dying off. In other words, I can type 115 words a minute, but don't ask me to explain how Congress concluded that pizza is a vegetable. Then again, can anyone explain that?

I'm looking forward to soon posting an invitation to visit my new website. In the meantime, do yourself a favor and watch or listen to the video below. I promise that it's a distraction well worth your time.

Comments

[Tim Storey]

I absolutely love that video. She captures that song better than any I ever heard.

Well, you know I can relate to your blog. I'm doing better about Facebook, but I'm still way too distracted by the internet. I could use a two week vacation in a cabin up on top of a high mountain with no phones or internet.

Great job once again, Dana.

[Dana]

Thanks, Tim. Well, you are on the right track with the cabin in the mountains idea.

I just read this blurb from "The Shallows" book last night:

"A series of psychological studies over the past twenty years has revealed that after spending time in a quiet rural setting, close to nature, people exhibit greater attentiveness, stronger memory, and generally improved cognition. Their brains become calmer and sharper. The reason, according to attention restoration theory, is that when people aren't being bombarded by external stimuli, their brains can, in effect, relax. They no longer have to tax their working memories by processing a stream of bottom-up distractions. The resulting state of contemplativeness strengthens their ability to control their mind."

We all knew this, though, right?