Marking Time vs. Marching Forward
Those of you who were in a marching band are no doubt familiar with the concept of “marking time.” This occurs when you are not going anywhere but are still marching crisply in time to the music or drumbeat. It is necessary when marching in a parade and the entire band needs to hold its position in the occasional pauses that always occur, and allows the band to stay in formation while waiting. It also happens during halftime shows at high school and college football games when part of the band is marching into a particular shape but other sections need to wait their turn. There is a uniformity to the waiting when everyone continues to march in place as others are moving across the field.
I hate to admit it, but since I returned from my trip last fall to California and back, following the trail taken by my Larson ancestors, I have been essentially marking time when it comes to deciding where this blog goes next. I want to march forward into the future but, instead, have been holding my position while taking steps that go nowhere.
At the beginning, I was fairly prolific in generating articles about the Larson adventures and my own, but since returning from the two month adventure in early December I have only written a handful of blog articles, and have not been entirely satisfied with any of them. Why did I write them? Was I compelled or was I just filling space? What are they really about? What is the message? What should come next? What are my goals with this blog? Now that I don’t have the defining event of the 1938 trip in front of me anymore, what am I doing?
The 1938 Project feels like it is receding into the background, and I’m not sure what comes next. I’m not feeling the same “calling” that I felt after the excitement of discovering the scrapbook. My other blogs and newsletters over the years followed a similar path that ended in extinction. Lots of energy and enthusiasm in the beginning, followed by a slow dying on the vine as my focus and attention waned. I would prefer not to go down that pathway again, and am searching for the magic formula of ideas and motivation that will keep my articles interesting and relevant both to me and to my readers.
Rather than focus on developing the next stages of the blog in a thoughtful way, however, I have been in full avoidance mode, making what feels like half-hearted stabs at articles that aren’t connected to anything. Always interested in reflecting on what I’m doing in the moment, I realize that I have learned a few things while in this phase of ambivalence, indecision, and outright procrastination.
In the spirit of saving you from my fate of floundering around thinking that I’m still on my original blogging path and ignoring the fact that I currently have no clear way forward, I offer the insights below for recognizing when your head is in the sand. You may want to lift your head up, take a breath, and reboot.
To those of you who want to find new ways of avoiding a task or activity that may be near and dear to your heart (or not), but is currently without momentum or direction, here is my list of strategies that I have found very effective. Keep in mind that these strategies need to give way to the reboot eventually as they are not sustainable if you ever expect to get yourself back on track. This article is the beginning of my own reboot.
Ever feel like you can’t finish anything?
Those of you out there who are already experts at procrastination no doubt have your own version of the following list, and I invite you to share them in the comments. These are in no particular order of priority. They all work.
Fill your social calendar. Meet up with friends for coffee or cocktails or dogwalks, visit relatives and help them move, go out to dinner or concerts. Any of these will keep you from focusing too much on your own shortcomings and fill in time you could be spending doing research or writing. An added benefit may be the strokes of support you get from your friends and family as you lament about feeling “stuck” or “rudderless.”
Sign up to learn a foreign language. This one is guaranteed to fill many hours as you try to keep up with a weekly class over a two month period. Make sure it includes homework that must be done between classes. In person classes will be best not only because you have to take time to drive somewhere, but also because each week you will need to carefully review the previous weeks’ material in preparation for the dialogues you will have with your fellow students during the class itself. Signing up with a friend may help keep you motivated, at least through the first few weeks of the class or until both of you have decided you’ve had enough. Know that if you don’t spend inordinate amounts of time studying you will totally embarrass yourself as the one person who can’t answer the question “Como esta” with any facility, even after four weeks of classes. For any of you considering this option, note that German, which may be firmly imprinted in your brain, will be of no use whatsoever in your efforts to learn Spanish. Also, for those of you in a certain age bracket, be aware that it is well known that aging brains do not process new information as quickly as younger brains do, so make sure you go through everything slowly when you review the weekly material, thus adding even more time to your study sessions.
Plan a trip. While you are going nowhere (figuratively and literally) you can begin planning your next trips while you are waiting for the weather to warm up. The sooner you plan to get on the road, the more urgent the need to plan becomes, and the more time you will spend planning than blogging. Multiple trip planning also multiplies the time spent on this activity while you mull over possible destinations, routes, desired scenery, potential meet-ups along the way, etc.
Make appointments. Dentist, car tune-up, vet visits, annual physical, bone scans, mammograms, home repairs, furnace tune-ups, all take some amount of time to put in place, and they fill in your calendar nicely. You can’t work on a blog if you are waiting all afternoon for the cable guy, right? They could arrive at any moment, breaking any concentration and momentum you might have built up, so best not to begin anything.
Shop online. This allows you to devote untold hours of time searching for items you have decided you can no longer live without, while also saving you from venturing out into the cold temperatures. Books recommended by others. Household convenience items like a popcorn popper (so that you can make your own kettle corn). A special mat with a cover that you can move around to different surfaces so you can work on a puzzle without worrying the cat will knock all the pieces to the floor for the dogs to eat when you aren’t looking. An exercise pull-up bar that fits in your doorway. Any number of “must-haves” for your camper or car - space savers, window nets, door stopper, seat organizer, a daily planner, etc. etc. The list of things you need is endless if you just put some thought into this activity whenever you don’t want to think about your blog. It will provide hours and hours of browsing time even if you never actually buy anything.
Practice your _______ (insert your instrument of choice here). It’s amazing how attractive the concept of practicing can become when faced with the alternative of trying to choose a topic to write about, or reviewing and refining the whole blog concept and what you want out of it. This one also has the added benefit of practicing the art of being patient with yourself as you (once again) realize how little progress you’ve made since you bought the instrument. Hanging in there when the going gets frustrating is a virtue worth pursuing on its own merit and deserves adequate time to master. And who knows, you might actually improve if you stick with it this time!
Join the local rec center (yet again) and play pickleball or swim regularly (or any number of other exercises). This one may be the most virtuous of the bunch because it is a clear “twofer.” You are actively doing something good for your overall health and longevity while simultaneously using up valuable time that could otherwise be spent sitting at a computer screen writing. Of course, this one is an effective avoidance tactic only if you actually follow through and go more than once or twice in a month. Keep in mind that infrequent visits may not be enough to justify the cost of the six month membership you just paid for, so word to the wise: you want to strive for cost effectiveness as you try out these different strategies.
Read a book. Great way to spend uninterrupted hours buried in someone else’s world without having to think about your own. Or better yet, if you can’t seem to get all the way through any of the books you bought in the last year but you still want to use books as a vehicle for avoiding the blog, try going through the piles of books lying around taking up space and box up the ones that are not precious to you or you know you will not miss seeing on your shelves. Donate them to your public library where they will find new homes during the annual library book sale. Keep any books that could be helpful to blog or book writing. In your ideal world where you are finally creating content that your followers are hungry for, you may need them.
Declutter closets. Similar to the above except instead of bookshelves, you are diving into the nether reaches of closets and drawers to pull out clothing, household items and other throwaways that are taking up space. You will feel productive while also avoiding being productive.
Throw a party. This will motivate you to spend hours obsessing about what you need to do to prepare for the party, and then doing those things as the day gets closer. If you have a theme for the party, such as a craft project (like collage making) then you can combine #5 above with this one as you research and shop online to make sure you have all the materials you need for an art activity that you have never done before. Make sure you invite at least one guest who has some experience with the activity and is willing to guide the others. Have plenty of food which, of course, requires more planning time. The party itself can take up an entire afternoon or evening. Win-win!
Putter. I’m a great putterer. Besides the usual puttering tasks such as laundry, dishes, vacuuming, watering plants, etc., I can spend all kinds of time doing things around the house that take time and feel productive but actually accomplish very little in the great scheme of things. Rearranging the centerpiece on my dining room table. Meandering through facebook groups looking for the next great camping tip. Picking up various items lying around the house and putting them in a different place (not necessarily a better place, I need to point out). Looking through recipe books in preparation for… well, just because. Does a person who loves to eat and cook really need a reason to look through recipe books?
Play games or surf the web. On your own or with others. Think: YouTube videos. Facebook. Instagram and TikTok. Scrabble. Cribbage. Euchre or other card games. Wordle. Connections. Crossword Mini. Spelling Bee. Puzzle-solving (why did I think I was ready for 2000 pieces???). You get the idea and probably have your own personal favorites. Before you know it, hours of scrolling and gaming will have passed, leaving no time for anything else on this list. If you don’t like games or web-surfing, there is always binging the plethora of great movies and TV shows so readily available on Netflix, Prime, AppleTV, Max, etc.
Hit the road. When all else fails, escape into your vehicle and drive out of town for a few days or weeks in search of a change of scenery and inspiration. (this assumes you have already spent the time needed in tip #3, unless you decide to simply meander mindlessly from one place to another). Driving alone, traveling to a different part of the state or country, left to your own thoughts without distraction, may just provide the right amount of solitude that will lead you to your next phase of serious writing. Be sure to bring your dog so you have someone to talk to when the mood hits.
A felt-making class can be a very fun way to avoid moving forward in your life. Low stakes and high reward!
These tips seems like more than enough to get you started on your own avoidance strategies, regardless of what it is you are trying to avoid. Good luck!
I’m leaving on a springtime camping trip heading to North Carolina and the southern Atlantic coast in a week so perhaps I’ll find something else to write about by then or while I’m out and about. Stay tuned!
Do any of you have thoughts about what direction you’d like to see me go with this website? Do you like the family history stories? Do you like the travelogues? Would you like to see me write in a totally different direction? All feedback is valuable.
