HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION

I spent two weeks after Memorial Day on a personal retreat. I got out of town to slow down, relax, unplug and actually get some important work done that for some reason I wasn’t able to get done at home.

I was staying at a place with no internet and no cell phone. I was unplugged from the wireless world. I still had my iPhone (which I used for taking pictures and listening to music) and my laptop (which I used to write and think and brainstorm, but not check email, Huffington Post or Nikki Finke.)

And actually, it was great. I sat on a wicker chair outside my room many mornings, overlooking a beautiful mountain, listening to great music and writing.

AND HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED.

I got a lot of work and thinking done. Freed from the potential distractions of the world wide web I stayed focused.

When I reached a moment in my work where I was stuck or lost or tired or frustrated, I didn’t have email to distract me.

I was “forced” to stay with the process. Or to stare into space, take a walk, get some tea, close my eyes, go for a swim, or write something else.

And what happened was that usually, after a few minutes of thinking or staring at the screen, a new idea occurred and my fingers started typing again.

WHAT WAS I THINKING?

What I realized/remembered was that sometimes in the creative process, a pause occurs when we reach a question.

And the productivity demon/gremlin in our mind might say “if you’re not typing you’re wasting time” but in reality, much of what we do as creators is think about stuff. But simply “thinking” seems like it almost has no end or meaning and looks a lot to our “self-critical mind” like wasting time.

BE THE DECIDER

What I noticed this trip was that what looks and feels like “thinking” is actually “deciding.” And before we can decide, we often need to deeply explore and extrapolate options.

What will happen if I decide to go this way? Lets think it through. What will happen if I really go that way instead? Lets think that through.

But in a world with more distractions it’s easier to fall into a trap/loop that works like this. . .

A WRITER DECIDES

“Hmm. I’m not sure if I should set my screenplay in the late 1980’s (essentially when I first started writing it and thus make it a period piece or make it contemporary and set in 2009?”

When I think I can’t decide my inner efficiency expert says: “Oh. This is going to be a tough and important decision. I wonder if there’s anything interesting in my email?”

MEANWHILE . . .

An hour or so later when I’ve answered a few emails that seemed easier than working through the decisions that seem scary due to insufficient time actually thinking about it, I go back to my original question, and realize it’s still scary, and that also I’ve lost the train of thought I had percolating under the surface.

In fact, I forget that there was a percolating train and it seems easy to think, I’ll come back to this later.

STARBUCKS AND THE GRAPEVINE

Ironically I did some of my most important “deciding” while making the long drive from LA up to the Bay Area. I stopped at the Starbucks just over the Grapevine and hit the long flat highway with nowhere to go but north. Suddenly it’s a great time to think things through.

After much thinking of the pros and cons I realize this: If I set the story in 2009 everyone will have to have cell phones and be texting and on Facebook and Twitter and I don’t want that stuff in the story. So, 1990 is is. Decision made. All it took was some focused time unplugged to help make the decision. (That is, to actually work through the decision.)

CREATIVE FREEDOMS

Freed from the greatest distractions of all time (the internet, email, youtube, facebook) I could get some creative decisions made and then some great creative work done.

Even now. As I take a breath from writing these very words, I check the word count. Realize it’s a bit long. (Deep breath.) I’m going to have to do some editing and fix all these typos. And I want to send this out by this afternoon. (Deep breath.). And suddenly it’s . . .  “I wonder if I have any emails?” (Which I did not check just now, by the way.)

SOME LESSONS LEARNED

I learned that by unplugging I can get a few good hours of uninterrupted creative work in. And by changing that habit I can create a rhythm over a series of days that resulted in lots of great work.

Since my time away, I’ve been much better at focusing on one project at a time and getting much more done. Sometimes it feels like things are happening more slowly than my “inner producer” would like it to be taking, but that’s better than the occasional frustrated cycling and stop/start of too many projects at a time, which seem to not get done.

RECOMMENDATION

Don’t check email in the morning.

Stay with your inner thoughts and intuitions before you let the external data of the world run your day.

Figure out what’s important to you today, and stick with it.

I’m finding these days that when I wake up, my intuition tells me what has to get done that day. I either do my best to get right to that thing, or write it down on a 3 x 5 card and carry it around with me all morning until I start to do it.

Somehow, that early morning voice knows something that’s important. And when I listen to it and stay focused great things happen.

AND YOUR VOICES?

What important project started bubbling up in your mind as you were reading this?

What would you like to work on uninterrupted for an hour or two today, or tomorrow or this weekend?

I’d love to hear what you’re working on and when you’re going to do it.

Comments

[raj]

Thats great..

HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS PHOTOS