Lately I have been focusing not on work using the mind, but on work using the hands. A lot of people do not like doing hard physical labor. They especially don’t like it if it is boring or repetitive. I’m quite the opposite. The more “mind-numbing” the work, the more I relish going out and doing it. I like things that are physically tiring. I think it is because I have spent so much of my time *thinking* as part of the jobs I’ve held. Physical labor requires a completely different sort of thinking. It is a unique focus on exactly what you are doing. Hours can go by and I am blissfully unaware. Thoughts float to the forefront of my consciousness and then drift away. Sometimes I get my best “ah ha!” moments when I am not actively solving problems.
This week I have been painting the kitchen and preparing to put up a tile backsplash that I have talked about doing since we moved into this house. I’ve spent hours on a ladder so far this week. 7 hours yesterday alone – prepping and painting the ceiling. The beauty of a ladder is that you must be in the here and now. You need to experience what is going on around you. I can always tell when I am not in the present and I am either planning the future or ruminating about the past. When I am not paying attention on a ladder I tend to skip a step on the way down and land on the floor with a thud and a shock (usually on my feet). Dangerous yes, recoverable – thankfully yes. I managed that twice yesterday, and then finally the noise in my head ceased and I was able to focus solely on what I was doing. I wasn’t the painter. The ceiling wasn’t the object to be painted. The roller was an extension of who I am. There was no planning, thought or struggle. It just happened.
Thinking about how this relates to other instances of my life I have to say it feels like being in the “zone”. I’ve felt like this at work, and it is a really amazing place to be. I’ve had days where I’ve ripped code for hours on end and didn’t even budge from my desk. Other times, I’ve had the same experience putting together budgets and proposals for projects. I’m not sure if this is a universal experience – but I’ve typically have gotten into the “flow” or the “zone” when I’ve worked on something alone. It gives me the opportunity to just focus – without any distractions. Occasionally a good brainstorming session will do it. Sometimes a great volleyball match will as well. Those are always team activities, but it is a lot harder to feel the “flow” that way for me.
Here are some suggestions to help get you into the zone.
When I left my last full time gig last August, my first thing was to spend two months landscaping my house. I laid out and dug up new planting beds, put in edging (which involved chopping out some close-to-the-surface roots), tilled, reworked sprinklers, and planted. I completely gutted, tilled and replanted some of the existing planting beds and did some hillside cleanup. I lost over 20 lbs doing this work, and I felt like I was in great shape.
Then, I went back to work as a contractor, where I’m putting in a lot of hours in front of my computer scraping together a living for my family – and I have proceeded to put every pound right back on.
Desk jobs suck! Working with your hands, or athletic activity, is a GREAT antidote to work.