The Apple Watch is a Creativity Enhancer. I Hope...

An experiment in managing distraction...

Yes, I’m one of those people. I preordered the Apple Watch early in the morning on its first release, several weeks ago, before almost anyone had seen or touched it in person. I ordered a relatively expensive piece of electronics that saves me the exertion of pulling my phone out of my pocket.

In all truth, during most of the lead up to its launch, I had no intention of buying an Apple Watch. But as talk increased, my curiosity grew—and maybe not for the reasons you’re guessing.

As an improviser, business leader, parent, and human being—I think about attention a lot. Just as our calendars and bank accounts often say more about our values than any other statements we make, how we direct our attention is a key indicator of our truest values and approach to life. Time and energy are more critical currencies than any dollars you can pull out of your pocket.

The Apple Watch, like all other smart watches and phones, will serve as a great test to its wearers’ values—but also, perhaps, as an asset. 

The notifications, trivial emails, cat videos, and candy crushing games we carry around in our pockets on our phones already steal countless minutes and hours that could be spent on more meaningful endeavors. I’ve been as guilty as anyone of burning an hour reading Buzzfeed lists when I really should be doing something more creative, productive, and significant.

So, why—you may be asking—am I entertaining the possibility of strapping those distractions to my wrist?!

A fair question.

The Apple Watch may prove to be only an exacerbation of the plague of attention-drain that we are all battling in this modern world. But I’m also hopeful that the Apple Watch and other similar devices may have potential as deliberate lenses and filters with which we can focus our attention.

Any screen that’s connected to the internet these days deserves careful scrutiny towards its settings and what information you allow to pop into your frame of view. With its prominent wrist real estate, a notification-capable watch deserves the most scrutiny of all. I don’t plan to allow any email notifications, nor will social media dings be allowed space on the postage stamp sized screen.

Even more powerful, the capacity of smart watches as not simply information presenters, but also as idea collectors, has real potential to magnify our creative output.

Never mind my smartphone, my brain pings me with annoying distractions as often as any device I own does: “I really should mulch the yard this Spring….we’re out of toilet paper…I can’t forget to call Julie at work about the proposal due on Monday….next week is picture day at school for the kids….what did I just come down to the basement to get?”  

All of these unorganized and random mental alarms interrupt our focus and interfere with our ability to be present and at the top of our game.  As David Allen says, “Your brain is for having ideas, not holding them.” 

“The capacity of smart watches as not simply information presenters, but also as idea collectors, has real potential to magnify our creative output.”

I have long used an app called OmniFocus to manage all my projects and todos. There are lots of apps that do this sort of thing, but OmniFocus is my favorite for reasons I’ll write about at some other time. The key feature I love is that it syncs a master database of projects, todos, responsibilities, and deadlines across my MacBook, iPhone, iPad, and now my Apple Watch. It integrates with Siri, which means that whenever one of these thoughts comes to mind I can quickly capture it and get back to the project I’m working on.

Next time my brain reminds me that I need to pick something up at the store, find some information about conference I just heard about, or draft an email to the board, I’ll just raise my wrist and dictate the note into my watch. It’s immediately captured to my OmniFocus lists and I’m back to what I was doing.

“ Your brain is for having ideas, not holding them.”

— David Allen

Capturing new ideas and quickly dealing with distractions is one of the most critical keys to doing our most meaningful work whether that’s launching a new project, being prepared to make this afternoon’s meeting as productive as possible, or having a calm and present dinner with your kids. Having a clear mind that’s not encumbered with the heavy lifting of keeping track of everything allows your mind to focus on what it loves most: exploring new ideas and possibilities, solving problems, and being present with the people around you.

So, I’ll be experimenting with this new watch and seeing how well it works as an asset and a liability when it comes to living a more creative and productive life. I'll keep you posted on what I discover.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear how you deal with all the daily distractions that pop-up—both mental and digital. What are the tools (electronic or analog) you’ve discovered help support your most creative and meaningful work?

photo credit: Apple Watch Sport via photopin (license)

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© Andy Zimney and Leading Off the Cuff, 2015.

Being "Busy" Might Be a Big Warning Sign

A firefighter would never claim to be too busy to haul out the hose.

A surgeon doesn't skip sewing up an incision because she's behind schedule.

Pilots always find time to extend the landing gear.

For the past 20 years, I've had lots of roles and responsibilities as a business owner, manager, and executive leader that demanded I make choices about how I spend my time.

I've also spent about the same amount of time on stage as an improviser where I collaborate with other improvisers to create and perform stories on the fly for all sorts of audiences.

Over two decades of improvising, I’ve never heard any performer claim that they were too busy to make a great choice on stage:

“I was going to tell a better story, but life is just crazy right now.” 

Certainly, every improviser has gotten off stage many many times knowing that they could have done better, but lack of time is not an acceptable scapegoat.

When we know what is important, lack of time doesn't rate on our list of excuses.

Building a great story has plenty of challenges. Improvisers may be too distracted or too scared to make better choices—but never too busy.

In life, however, we all claim to be too busy to build better stories for ourselves on a fairly regular basis.

The truth is, whenever you say, “I’m too busy,” or “I don’t have enough time,” you don’t really mean either one. What you’re actually saying is one of 3 things:

Truth 1: "I’m deciding to use my time for other things that are more important to me.”

What it means: You’re on track and making choices in line with your values, goals, and priorities. You know the story you want to build and you're creating it in the best way you know how. 

Next questions: How, if anything, can I be more efficient so that I can do more of what’s important to me? Are there even bolder choices that would get me closer to the story I’m trying to build?

Truth 2: “I’m deciding to use my time for other things that are less important to me.”

What it means: Your goals and your actions are out of whack—you’re not doing what’s really important. It’s time to make some adjustments. Often this happens because you are more concerned about the reactions of your audience (your boss, your clients, your neighbors) than the greatness of the story. 

Next questions: What do I need to sacrifice for the sake of something more important to the story I’m trying to build? Am I choosing less important actions because they are safer and more comfortable? These questions require courage and brutal honesty. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that Truth 2 is about efficiency. Getting efficient at things that aren’t important to you just makes you ineffective faster and more often.

Truth 3: “I’m not sure what’s really important to me right now.”

What it means: It’s time to call a timeout and reflect. If you’re not sure what’s most important, it’s going to be hard to be very good at anything that matters. 

Next question: Why am I working so hard? What’s the story I most want to write for my life? These are purpose questions. (Doing a life audit is a great way to get clearer on these values.) If you believe you’re too busy to ask “Why?”, when will you have the time? Once you finish wrapping up all the distractions that don’t serve a purpose? Rambling stories that don’t drive to an intended conclusion often aren’t very satisfying—on stage or off.

What makes great improvisers so impressive is that they are always asking about the Why behind their characters and their stories. When they don’t know the purpose of the story that they are telling, they keep asking themselves questions and playing with their scene partners to figure it out.

When we as improvisers, entrepreneurs, employees, managers, spouses, leaders, and citizens are clear about our Why, we become great choice-making machines.

The great harm of telling ourselves we’re too busy is that implies that we have no choice. That’s hardly ever true. On stage or off. What makes it feel that way is not that we don’t know what we are choosing. It’s that we don’t know why we are choosing.

photo credit: Alan O'Rourke via photopin cc