Creators - Master your Attention

This year has already been one for the books. Those books being in a library that's on fire, during a hurricane, while vikings are raiding the village. One good thing is that lots of people are realizing just how much control Social Media has over our lives. Not just in terms of censoring, throttling, striking, or cancelling, but how much attention and energy they are taking.

By now, most people know apps are designed to keep us scrolling. They keep us coming back, take our data, and make the big bucks. If you are a creative in any way, you'll also realize they take precious time and mental space we need to make things.

In the future, maybe responsible schools will teach classes on how to use the internet. It should probably be a health class. In the meantime, we have to master our attention while the Sirens call to us from the ubiquitous black rectangles in our pockets.

As creators,  we benefit from the network of people that share interest in the kinds of things we make. We can't totally unplug, but at this point I think we all need to be more diligent (and strict with ourselves) as to where we spend our spare moments. Because those moments add up to minutes and hours...and hours. That's time that we could spend on making better stuff. 

In reality, we can connect with the people in social media, chat, and share our work in FAR less time than we think. This is a wild guess, but I'm pretty sure that 20 minutes a day is about all your need to get the word out and follow up with people. 

So make your content, interact with people, spread your word (maybe even schedule posts instead of constantly popping in and out) then get back to work. Put on some music, or silence, or that old episode of Star Trek where Kirk switches bodies with his old girlfriend. Whatever gets you focused. Get to work.