MAÔ – Page 89 – Michael's Musings

More on distractions

June 20, 2020 by MAÔ, posted in Work

It isn’t enough to not take on distractions. There needs to be a systemic method for canceling out the desire to be distracted.

Because we have programmed ourselves to feel pleasure at distraction. It isn’t necessarily our fault. It’s a side effect of the technological age. Similar to the marketer/shopping reward scenario that made consumerism such a pleasurable sensation. We are rewarded by checking social media, or email, or taking momentary breaks in our day.

So systems that we put in place to limit distractions get us closer to performing at our highest levels.

The undistracted mind

June 18, 2020June 18, 2020 by MAÔ, posted in Work

It’s easy to focus when nothing else grabs for your attention. But we aren’t built to handle distraction. When you consider that we were often beset by predators on a daily basis, it makes sense that our attention would be easily pulled away from what we were doing – lest we’d be eaten.

So handling distraction isn’t so much a matter of will power, rather than it’s a function of setting your environment up in such a way that potential distractions are blocked before they can even reach you. I like the description in Cal Newport’s Deep Work of Carl Jung: “He began with a basic two-story stone house he called the Tower… [including a private office]. “In my retiring room I am by myself,’ Jung said of the space. ‘I keep the key with me all the time; no one else is allowed in there except with my permission.”

In a practical sense, maybe you can’t have a tower out in the woods. But you can set up distraction-proofing.

That means, for me, working on a computer with the internet off, notifications off, noise-canceling headphones, a song on repeat (this one certainly takes some getting used to, but I’ve found that once the song fades into the background it is easier to concentrate than with other ambient noises), and a block (or blocks of time) that are strictly for the work.

Growth

June 17, 2020 by MAÔ, posted in Thoughts

If you let people’s perception of you dictate the way you act, the way you are, you will never grow as a person.

Digitizing my life

June 16, 2020June 16, 2020 by MAÔ, posted in Organization

I’ve been working on decluttering for some time now. It’s amazing how much you can accumulate in a short amount of time.

One way I’m doing that is scanning documents that I don’t physical copies of anymore. It’s a challenge, as I have boxes full of files that, for some reason, I’ve carried around rather than getting rid of.

Another tool is photographing something that I want to remember, but don’t really have a use for. Even actual photographs themselves, as addressed in this post from Courtney Carver.

The politics of tricky subjects

June 15, 2020June 15, 2020 by MAÔ, posted in Government

Political interpretation at its core is the distilling of beliefs through the window of law and social pressure. We don’t get re-dos in a lot of areas of our lives, but politics is one of them where we can overturn previously held ideas and reverse decisions previously made.

“Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” (Declaration of Independence)

The government in this country is powered by the consent of the people. As ideals and understanding of our world change, so do how we ask for our government to govern.

But simple things, like mandating the raising of revenue from the taxpayer, or instating and overturning prohibition, seem to be more unified than how we enforce or punish criminal proceedings, or encourage the unity of the nation.

The government, granted power through its constituents, is an extension of those constituents: and we are very much human, prone to mistakes and missteps. Yes, we may try for perfection, but we are incapable of it.

I don’t know that there’s any way to have an agreement about something tricky (race, policing, LGBT rights, health care, minimum wage, etc.) without first having a conversation about it. But I guarantee, putting your fingers in your ears and pretending like you don’t hear the other side is not the way.

My content

June 13, 2020 by MAÔ, posted in Writing

What I write here is a cultivation of my thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. They are uniquely mine, in that I don’t repeat them on social media very often, if at all.

There’s a freedom to having your content excluded from algorithms, or subject to the ups and downs of news feeds. Every day my post is the front of the page, only to drop down after my next post goes live.

Creating content, sharing opinions, and leaving it for all to see – there is value in that alone. After that, it’s up to me to say something worth saying.

Hello Sunshine

June 11, 2020June 11, 2020 by MAÔ, posted in Film

The media company Hello Sunshine, founded by Reese Witherspoon, has an interest in telling stories that are focused on women. Not only for women but that have women at the center of every story. Her purpose to tell, and share, female-driven stories.

You may not consider the need for someone pushing for telling women’s stories, but according to USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative report, published in late last year:

This year’s study also went beyond the top 100 to look at film slates distributed by major companies over the last 5 years, with results revealing the overall percentage of female directors was 9.8 percent, with 2019 the year in which the highest percentage of female directors worked (15 percent). Still, of the 40 slates studied, 26 of them did not feature a single woman of color as a director.

When stories are told, there is obviously a slant to what message is coming across. So when you omit the stories of women, or of people of color, you’re missing out on voluminous perspectives.