I am writing this column at 38,000 feet above Tennessee en route to New York— by way of a layover in Baltimore.
It is Tuesday morning and I am behind deadline as usual.
This summer has been busy with travel. Jennifer and Grace were in Seattle last week representing Tioga ISD at the National FCCLA meet. I represented the Texas Center for Community Journalism the week prior at the Texas Press Association Convention in College Station. There was a girls’ trip to Galveston earlier in June and a guys’ trip to Arkansas about the same time. We kicked off the summer covering the Whitesboro Lady Cats and Collinsville Pirates in the State Tournament action at Austin and Round Rock.
And now, here I am, on my way to a faculty training at Stony Brook University on Long Island. I was one of 20 journalism professors from across the nation selected to participate in a cohort centered around Solutions Journalism. An exciting opportunity, for sure. But another long trip, nonetheless.
We’ll all be home for most of next week before I head out for another Press Convention— this one in the Texas panhandle. Then we’ll end July as a family with a week of R&R in Broken Bow.
I remember a column I wrote in April lamenting how busy we were then.
“If we can just get through May, things will slow,” I wrote. Then I admitted that they wouldn’t.
I was right. They didn’t.
As I sit here typing, I almost caught myself saying, “If we can just get through July, things will slow down in August.” I know they won’t and that’s okay. School will be in session before we know it. Football, Halloween and holidays will all come in short order.
“Slow down, slow down, old world. There’s no hurry,” are the words of the old Willie Nelson song.
He was on to something. But the busy-ness is good. It reminds us that we have purpose. It reminds us that folks rely on us. It reminds us that life is short and we should live intentionally.
So, here I am, at 38,000 feet. I paid $8 to connect to the in-cabin WiFi. I am behind deadline on judging a press contest I’ve agreed to adjudicate. The two-and-a-half hours between Love Field and Baltimore seemed like the perfect amount of time to get through that online task. The WIFI worked for about 10 minutes then timed out. First-world problems I guess, but I soon found myself trapped behind a firewall. Dead in the water.
“Now what?” I said and remembered that I still had a column to write— a task that can be done without an internet connection.
I remembered the advice of an old writing coach who told us to write on a device that was not connected to the internet. He reasoned the lack of connectivity would minimalize distractions— no itch to check your email or social media could be scratched. There is no way to fall down an internet rabbit hole.
Just sit down and write.
That’s what I did, and it has been effective. I’ve cranked out 525 words so far and have all but forgotten about the baby crying a few rows back and the guy in the seat next to me who can’t seem to stop shaking his leg nervously (and annoyingly).
Another weekly column near complete.
Life is busy. Family, work, travel, deadlines— they can be all-consuming.
The world slows down for no one, but we can maximize our productivity by eliminating distractions. Turn off the WiFi (both literally and metaphorically) and focus on what’s most important. You’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish.
Source: Freepik.com