On distractions

How much of a difference does it make if you work without distractions? I have been thinking about this lately. For as long as I can remember, I have not drawn without some sort of audio in the background. Often it is just ambient music, but inching more towards audiobooks and podcasts these days. It should come as no surprise that my retention from these two are not nearly as well as it would be if I were doing something more passive like walking. But I've been finding that even ambient music has been damaging to actually "active" drawing.

In more than one of the books I've read this year, "directed practice" (or something along those lines) are pointed as a way to getting better at your craft. But it is impossible to have that feedback conversation with yourself if there is an audio there. Now, naturally I wanted to divide these into drawing for fun and drawing for growth. However, it isn't as clear cut as that. In the past week that I've been actively cutting out distractions when drawing and working. Effectively "single-tasking". I have found that even drawing without aim is more fun. It is -easier- to fall into flow with either activity.

It is tempting to think that I can do multiple things. But, it leaves both tasks being done halfheartedly. Especially with remote work, there is the temptation to have a streaming video or something even more distracting in the background. Well, I certainly won't have a clear or consistent focus then. I haven't measured it, but my output and happiness while doing anything must be severely compromised if it's being split in so many directions. "Deep Work" author Cal Newport definitely agrees with this. Although, he has taken this a lot further than I have thought to. Especially if we consider his later book "Digital Minimalism". I haven't read that yet, but perhaps I ought to.

There are many reasons to multitask, but a big one for me seems to be out of fear. It's a fear of choice. When you commit wholly to one activity, you forfeit others. Mutli-tasking makes it seem as if you're not choosing. But really, you are. It is just that you're doing both inefficiently. Newport points out research that demonstrates that we don't actually multi-task. Instead, we are actually single-tasking for extremely short moments and context-switching multiple times. And all that context-switching can be exhausting. This really clicked for me when I thought about how I will turn off the radio / music in my car when I drive through an accident scene or a new neighbourhood. I'm physically unburdening my brain to focus more on the task at hand. Why should that same principle not apply to the rest of my life?

Or as the legendary animator Milt Kahl says, maybe I'm just not smart enough to do two things at once.