The importance of White Space in your life
It can’t all be task based
In our busy professional and personal lives we sometimes ask the wrong questions. We ask repeatedly “How can I do more?” and “How can I get more done?” We are constantly trying to cram more stuff into our limited time. There is a time for this and it is a modern necessity but we need to create white space as well.
What is white space? It is time that is ours. It is time that allows us to recharge our batteries with no accomplishment quota. If you are a person that gets compensated on the quality of your work you especially need to make room for white space in your life.
One of Covey’s 7 habits of highly successful people is taking time to sharpen your saw. You just can’t continually run at 100% capacity and expect to be engaged, effective or creative. Eventually you get to the point where you are brain-dead. You show up for engagements but you don’t add any value because your intellect has been filed blunt by activity.
Covey said that all successful people take time off to ‘sharpen their saw’. The story here is that the woodcutter who takes time to sharpen his saw will cut more wood than the wood cutter who works harder and longer with a dull saw. Being an avid wood cutter, I can attest to this. Working with a dull saw is not only ineffective, it is dangerous.
My Dad would sharpen the individual teeth of his chain saw with a small metal file. Being from a different generation I don’t have time for that kind of care. I buy a new chain for the saw when it gets dull – I’m not sure whether that negates the metaphor or proves my point.
This is the intended purpose of the vacation. The workers set aside a couple weeks out of the year to relax and then come back to work refreshed and ready to go. This is a good theory but it can fall apart in practice.
First, I think the concept of only letting yourself relax once or twice a year in a big break is probably an inefficient and ineffective way to create white space in your life. Secondly, sometimes a family vacation can be more stressful than working! Third, some of us have a hard time disconnecting after being so tightly tied to our careers and endeavors. (Have you ever noticed that you don’t truly start to enjoy yourself on vacation until the 3rd or 4th day?) And how many of us go on vacation but stay tethered to work electronically? That really defeats the purpose.
I propose that creating white space in your life to sharpen you saw and recharge you batteries as a daily and weekly challenge. It should be engineered into your life, not in a once or twice a year batch.
How much white space is in your life? Is there any at all? Do you roll out of bed in the morning and attack task after task all day long until you fall back into bed at night? Do you measure your worth in terms of how many things you checked off your list during the day?
I propose that we come up with strategies to insert that white space into our days.
What is white space for you? For me it might be reading (non-work related stuff). It might actually be non-directed writing. It might be a run in the woods with my dog. It might be some form of quiet meditation for a few minutes. It might be spending some time with my family or friends.
Looking at this I can see that the common thread is that these activities are non-directed. There is no goal in mind that drives the whitespace. It is my time. There is no deadline per se. There is no set requirement for an accomplishment. It is time spent outside my task list.
This simple realignment of my focus for a short period of time allows the energy and creativity and pleasure to flow back into my world. By taking your foot off the accelerator, by removing your shoulder from the wheel by taking your nose away from the grindstone you create new structural space for you intellect to stretch and relax.
I have a tendency to co-opt my white space by converting it into more goal-based activity. That 30 minutes of reading for pleasure turns into 20 minutes of reading industry research for my job. The easy run in the woods with the dog turns into a hard workout in preparation for a race. That non-directed writing turns into an article or blog post.
I have to guard against that. When you let your white space activity become task and goal based it no longer serves as a release. It no longer creates white space it is just more of the same. When you design your white spaces into your weeks, don’t co-opt them. Prioritize them.
Some people I know like to watch TV or play video games or other forms of ‘entertainment’. I’m cautious here. I understand that everyone’s brain is wired differently but TV seems to be just another form of noise to me. White space should be intellectually quiet. It is the noise and the chaos that the white space is sanctuary from.
Other people will say that they relax by drinking or other forms of chimerical entertainment. That bothers me intellectually as well. I don’t ever remember waking up rested and relaxed and free of worry from a bender! I don’t think that qualifies as quiet time. If you have to self-medicate to find moments of peace in your life you should look into that. It’s unsustainable and adds to your deprivation in the long run.
What’s a simple starting point?
Give yourself 20 minutes a day for white space. Even if you only are successful in defending your white space 50% of the time I think it’s still a win. I find white space fits well in the morning before the day unfolds and at night when the mind is weary. Maybe this is why so many people write, meditate or exercise in the morning. Maybe this is why people read at night before falling asleep.
One of the advantages of my lifestyle is that it has natural white space interspersed in it. When I’m traveling on business I have quiet time on airplanes and in hotel rooms. I can create white space ad hoc throughout the week if I choose to.
It is always a choice. Because I could choose to watch TV in that hotel room or choose to walk to the bar. Sometimes I do.
My challenge to you and to myself is to create and find more white space in our lives. To do this I think we start with a goal (there I go again) of 20 minutes of white space a day. Our white space should have these qualities:
– It should be non-directed activity with no goal or deadline or quota
– It should be quiet and without distraction
– It should be create peace in your intellect not add to the chaos
– It should be our time and no one else’s
Will you join me this week in my pursuit of white space? Will you let me know how it works for you and what your challenges are?
Maybe we can learn something here.
Cheers,
Chris,
Well said, Chris.