Just wanted to build a bit on the 'drift' habit (see previous post). As I've thought more about it I've realised how 'drift' is stolen from us... Remember the 'drift' of childhood, wandering along parks and roads and stopping to dissect every leaf and study every stone and twig - 'drifting' with no cares and 100% focus on whatever my grubby hands picked up. The complete attention given to every conversation, every facial crease and wrinkle examined, every word savoured.. The deep listening and focus habits of a child... All eroded over time into a complexity of noise, worries, time pressures, competing demands... Is it right to even imagine 'drift' can be rediscovered and re-enchanted in a 'matured' life?
The times I most 'drift' are when the noise of a busy life have been quietened - a holiday when previously I'd genuinely caught up with all promises to self and others. Only when I've actually got Inbox Zero and all my stuff (projects, appointments, next actions, Things to Do) in a system that I can trust, can I leave this stuff and recapture 'drift'.
A philosophy of workflow and 'drift' management I've found revolutionary is GTD ( Getting Things Done) - it talks a lot about recapturing the creative 'drift' moments by tightly managing the 'other stuff' of life. Managing and channeling the complexity in order to find space to create, space to wonder and wander and space to 'drift'.
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