Thursday, January 17, 2008

"Cut Back On Distractions"

I have pulled the title of this post from the framed list weaving inspirations currently sitting on top of my loom. Distractions are a great problem for me. And one of my potential distractions is actually weaving related. I can easily be distracted by all the ideas that pop into my head for future projects. These are not ideas for the project that is going to go on the loom next, a project that may be fairly settled but still fluid enough to allow of some changes. Rather, these are ideas that have nothing to do with the current three projects on which I am focusing. And that is why they are distracting.

Of ideas like this, Meg in Nelson had to say this in one of her her recent comments:

"...sometimes I have about 7 or 8 [ideas] that I'm thinking about, some of the[m] unconsciously for a long time. I decided a while back not to police this, as I don't want to stifle any possibility."

I certainly agree about not stifling possibilities. To this end I keep a page on the computer for making notes about possible projects for the future. I started doing this early on in my playing with weaving. I did this, quite frankly, because I regarded every idea as pure gold. At least potentially pure gold. I know better now.

Indeed, I have learned that all these ideas can be distractions to the real work that I must do.

Still, I do put them down on paper (well, on the computer, which, for me, is better) even though I know many/most will probably never make it off the page for all sorts of reasons. But I do know that a hidden gem may lie there as well.

Most of all, however, putting these (currently) distracting ideas somewhere where I can get at them when I want to means that I know where they are, but I don't have to focus on them right now. They do not have to distract from my currently active projects. I'm not sure I would call this "policing" but it certainly is a kind of discipline.

Now if I could only deal with other kinds of distractions...............

3 comments:

Meg said...

And then there's blogging. Some days I spend too much time looking for the right word that I don't get around to warping or threading or weaving. Other times, it helps me to put down on the "page" how I felt about something or dealt with a problem, and I feel I have a clean slate and get on to the more important work.

My life has been one long battle with distractions, Peg. If I were born 30 years later, or if I moved more quickly, I would have been diagnosed with one of those acronyms. Maybe it's a good thing I move sluggishly?!

Dorothy said...

I think recording ideas like this is one means of keeping a "sketchbook". Could be very useful.

Leigh said...

I need to do what Dorothy suggests as my problem with ideas is that I don't seem to write them all down in the same spot. They are scattered throughout several notebooks. Of course, I rarely seem to go back and look at them again anyway ...... so maybe I'm just amusing myself.