🤫 Is a quest for quiet quite quixotic?
Ep 41: The magic of unstructured time, something new to watch, and "Huh? What'd you say?"
Happy Juneteenth, and a belated Happy Father’s Day. It’s been quite a week, culminating in the Gorges Ithaca Half Marathon here. Saturday’s run was quite nice, with overcast skies and somewhat cooler temperatures to offset the humidity. I had a great time running, as did Amy and Elizabeth (Xander couldn’t join in the fun because he’s having his own fun in Italy!), and am enjoying the rest of this long holiday weekend.
A Tip for the Modern Worker
Find the magic in unstructured time. When all your time is planned for you (or by you), you can miss out on time to think freely. When did inspiration strike you last? Chances are, it wasn’t during a hectic day of meetings. Allocate unstructured time for you to focus on your own work. It may simply be time to think, but you'll create the space for novel ideas to form, emerge, and mature.
This tip is one of 365 in my Handbook for the Modern Worker. I go through phases where I block off time in my calendar for deep work. These are times when I get some really good thinking done. My second favorite time for this is heading out for a midday run. It’s a great way to solve problems, find opportunities, and connect the dots.
#365DayDraw
I drew this and wrote the accompanying annotation as part of my #365DayDraw project 7 years ago today.
Did you know cornhole is also known as dadhole?
We have a nice cornhole set that my daughter painted with my Dad. It was probably about this time seven years ago that it was a relatively new addition to our backyard, too. According to Wikipedia this game goes by many names, including baggo, bean bag toss, dummy boards, doghouse, dadhole, sacks, beans, beanbag, bean in the hole, ramps, and bean bags.
Commentary
Take a look at this: Noise Could Take Years Off Your Life. Here’s How. (New York Times). This article got me thinking about noise and its commensurate health risks. I grew up in the same small town where I live now, but I lived for years above a busy highway on Long Island, commuted on the railroad to work, and am reminded of the general noisiness of cities every time I travel for business.
I use my Apple Watch’s noise notifications feature. It tells me when environmental noise is too loud, like when I was using a leaf blower to clean off my deck.
Another reliable alert comes during Friday night BodyPump, where noise levels can peak given my proximity to the speakers. It’s not a huge room, and the volume is pretty loud, but it’s a damn good workout.
But in general, living in the country without a commute means the assaults on my ears are short-lived.
I do use Airpods for music and podcasts while rowing or doing work around the house, but I lean heavily on my Shokz (bone-conducting headphones) when I’m hiking or running. It’s nice to know that I’m not directly channeling loud music into my ears for such a long time, and I can still hear sounds from around me.
Do you know people with hearing issues? There are non-invasive assistive technologies that can help. You may have anecdotally heard of people using Airpods as hearing aids, and there’s a great page about Apple’s hearing accessibility efforts. Features like Conversation Boost, Sound Recognition, and Live Listen can help tune you in if you’re finding it difficult to hear.
In the meantime, I’m doing what I can to limit the assaults on my ears: plugging them when walking by a busy construction site or waiting on a city train platform as trains screech by, limiting the volume in my headphones, or being more vocal when I can help control the volume in a space I frequent. Xander also has earplugs for when he’s playing his instruments, which seems like a pretty smart habit to get into at his young age.
A few takeaways from the article I cited: I didn’t know that the decibel scale is logarithmic, not linear. That explains why louder seems really loud. And, as if I needed one more reason to like Switzerland, they have national quiet hours: overnight, a midday weekday hour, and all day Sundays and public holidays. Now that’s some sweet-sounding legislation.
Miscellanea
🍚 Xander turned me on to Cava after he enjoyed it in Boston, and I got it before the return bus ride from my latest business trip. If you haven’t had the pleasure, you’re going to see more locations pop up after Cava’s recent blockbuster IPO.
🪞 We found something else to watch! Black Mirror Season 6 dropped on Netflix and we’re through Episode 1. Looking forward to the rest!