Ungeek It

Some great reading recently has made me revisit the concept of focus and productivity.

• Andrew Boyd at On Blogging wrote an insightful post asking Carlos Castaneda’s question “Does this path have a heart?” I transliterated the question to ask myself whether my heart is truly in my path.
   

• Darren Rowse at Problogger posted a poll asking “How many blogs do you post to regularly?” The answers varied from none to more than 9, with 1 being the most common response – and my blog count is 2.
   

• Christina Hyun at Beast Mom wrote eloquently of her challenges with continuing to blog in a direction and focus that isn’t entirely right for her.

In true hyperanalytical geek fashion, I’ve spent a few days reflecting on these questions and decided to answer them within the framework of the laws of physics – thermodynamics, in particular. My high school physics teacher would be proud.

First Law of Thermodynamics: Conservation of Energy

The change in the internal energy of a closed thermodynamic system is equal to the sum of the amount of heat energy supplied to the system and the work done on the system.

We are all closed systems. We have a finite amount of time – 24 hours a day. We have a finite amount of energy, although that certainly varies from individual to individual. And, while we have unlimited creative capacity, we have a finite ability to focus.

Work, whether writing, carpentry or applied physics, requires all of the above: time, energy and focus. We spend those where our priorities lie. We can apply heat energy to our lives in the form of motivation and passion, but it doesn’t change those basic constraints.

How many projects can we focus on at once? At what point does our effectiveness degrade, because we’ve reached the maximum capacity of our personal closed system? Is it better to do a few initiatives with excellence, or apply yourself to many projects just good enough to get by?

Those answers may be different for everyone.

At work, I have the bandwidth to manage 3-4 medium to large projects effectively, and then my focus is just too thinly spread to be effective.

At home, I can also juggle 3-4 specific areas of focus. After first spending time being a wife and mom, then keeping up a home and yard, there’s not a lot of energy left. I can usually add only one or two endeavors – blogging, and maybe fitness, creative avocation, continued learning, spiritual pursuit or other project. Any more, and it all starts to fall apart.

Why? Again, I have a limited amount of time, energy and focus. I can add energy and turn up my effectiveness with motivation – but if I am motivated spend more energy and focus on one, e.g. blogging, I have less left for the other items I am juggling.

My preference is always to perform the things I do with as high a degree of excellence as possible – mediocre or scraping by is never acceptable.

Second Law of Thermodynamics: Entropy

The total entropy of any isolated thermodynamic system tends to increase over time. Energy can be obtained from differences among systems, but loss of heat occurs, in the form of entropy, when energy is produced.

Merriam Webster defines entropy as:

a : the degradation of the matter and energy in the universe to an ultimate state of inert uniformity b : a process of degradation or running down or a trend to disorder

This confirms for me what I already know from technology project management: time slicing is not efficient. We lose time, focus and energy every time we hop back and forth from project to project. This is what makes us less efficient when we try to take on too much.

How do we handle the energy loss and trend to disorder? Acknowledge that it exists, understand its impact, and plan for it. For me, it’s learning to say no and limit my areas of focus so that I can continue to be productive and pursue excellence in what I choose to do. I periodically take stock and prune commitments and projects so can stay in that effective zone.

Where is the point that entropy makes you ineffective? Where do we become overwhelmed, scattered and productive at nothing? Again, it’s different for everyone, but we’ve all seen examples of those who try to do too much and end up falling apart. It’s driving the opt-out movement of parents – not just moms - who leave the traditional workforce to create a lifestyle that’s family centered.

What I’m finding right now is that the energy required to keep up work, family, home, and two blogs, means that I don’t have enough time, energy or focus left to write freelance, get serious about fitness, or invest any time in avocations like metalsmithing or creative writing. To make one of those a priority I’d need to back off on another activity… in a closed system there is only so much energy that can be produced.

My family comes first, I need my paycheck, and I really don’t want to give up on either blog. At the same time, I do want to reclaim some time and energy for other creative activities I enjoy, that I find uplifting and positive. They are replenishing, although they don’t actually produce energy in the thermodynamics sense of the word. (OK, maybe fitness does!)

I think the key to the whole equation is choice. I need to choose where my focus lies – which path has heart, as Carlos Castaneda would say – and ruthlessly prune away distracting endeavors until I can again commit to excellence.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 3:06 pm and is filed under blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.