Interesting link below from a recent TED Talk (Aug 2014, about 15 min in
length) discussing ³going nowhere² or in Stagan-speak, the Myth of
Multitasking or Focused Attention, perhaps.

One of my ongoing areas of progress is what I call the "unquenchable
vacuum² of things to do. Meaning simply that the more I do, or the
³smarter" instead of ³harder" I work, or the more I get done to empty my
³list,² conversely, the more that rushes back in to occupy the space,
sometimes even with an element of enlargement.

Similar to lightening creating a vacuum and air thundering in to refill
it. Nature abhors a vacuum, and so does an ³empty list."

Two-hundred emails a day? No problem: some deletes, couple of filters, a
few folders . . . and quickly, there are three-hundred a day.

No complant, not even in the least. Few things lonelier than an empty mail
box (physically or online), as the tried and true direct response
expression goes. And fully embraced, I much prefer having too much to do,
than nothing to do. Been there, didn¹t care for it. Not at all.

Nevertheless, moderation is an equal and envious pursuit. And this is
where utilizing my ³Reality" of Multitasking, Focused Attention, FISBE,
and other ILP tools are helping move me along the motion and commotion of
life's daily opportunities.

It¹s a journey, no question, and the more I bring myself to become
conscious of it, consider it, and even at times confront it, the more I¹m
finding ways to change it: to "pause in the moment," or ³pray without
ceasing² as Scripture calls it, to open up a little more-than-before space
for "calm and clarity."

Forging the time and trouble to go ³offline to be more online,² to allow
for the "luxury of empty spaces," and to submit to the "urgency of the
un-urgent" is no easy matter for me. If it is bright and shinny and looks
like a squirrel, I¹m in. And that¹s where, via ILP, I¹m practicing to be
³out² for a while, to "sit still" in either mind or motion, and ³being
attentive² to "paying attention."

In this part of my journey, I am finding it not as much about having ³been
there² or ³getting there,² as it is about ³being there² on the path and
enjoying the progress of the improvement, though painful as it may be at
times. It is now more about ³multiplying by subtracting,² and knowing that
every ³yes" is a no" to something else, and that going ³nowhere quicker"
is a good way to get ³somewhere slower."

Perhaps this is why some call it, the Art of Going Nowhere. ‹ Paul

http://www.ted.com/talks/pico_iyer_the_art_of_stillness

On 11/28/14, 5:37 PM, "Rebecca Litwin" <rebecca@downetc.com> wrote:

>
> Happy Thanksgiving to all and thank you for all your sharing and time and
>energy.
>
> In reading the The Myth of Multitasking I  have refelcted often on
>article and  one of Rosen examples :
>
>the "stream of thought to a river"
>
> as I recently went fly fishing and standing in the stream and focusing
>act repeative act ( it was really a challenge in patience and skill )
>
>
>
> Below  is the comment he makes on  Multitasking:
>
>"William James, the great psychologist, wrote at length about the
>varieties of human attention. In The Principles of Psychology (1890), he
>outlined the differences among ³sensorial attention,² ³intellectual
>attention,² ³passive attention,² and the like, and noted the ³gray chaotic
>indiscriminateness² of the minds of people who were incapable of paying
>attention. James compared our stream of thought to a river, and his
>observations presaged the cognitive ³bottlenecks² described later by
>neurologists: ³On the whole easy simple flowing predominates in it, the
>drift of things is with the pull of gravity, and effortless attention is
>the rule,² he wrote. ³But at intervals an obstruction, a set-back, a
>log-jam occurs, stops the current, creates an eddy, and makes things
>temporarily move the other way.²
>
>
>Thank you Rebecca
>