Stimulation

[tealin]

I have pretty much always drawn while listening to the radio. From my first Harry Potter drawings, done behind the counter of a rarely-visited gift shop with mandatory country music playing, through a few years of film and musical soundtracks and half the Vancouver Public Library's collection of audiobooks, to the discovery of Radio 4 and all that. I need a chew toy to distract the verbal half of my brain and let the bit doing the spatial/fine motor work get on with it.

Once before I've had to make do without much to listen to: In 2007, long after I'd got used to having a computer at my desk with all its streaming and/or distracting opportunities, I interned at James Baxter's studio, the upper floor of an old warehouse and last preserve of analogue animation desks in LA. The other interns had laptops, but I only had my tiny iPod Nano, and after a week or two I'd memorised pretty much everything on it. But an odd thing happened when I ran out of external stimulation, and my Left Brain's clamour for distraction was perforce denied long enough: it shut up and went away to do its own thing, and good lord did I ever get a lot done.

I've been in the same position the last couple of days. I'm in Bristol doing a few days on-site at the studio for which I've been freelancing, doing rotations, the sort of work on which I most "need" something to listen to, and during which I get most of my radio listening done. I do have my laptop with me, just in case, but have not turned it on yet, nevermind accessed the WiFi. And my brain is doing the same thing. It's a little bit miraculous: I thought I was another casualty of our hyper-distracted age, yet here I am, doing relatively tedious work in a silent room, perfectly content.

It's made me resolve to turn off as much as I can when I get back home. I can't imagine going fully without the radio, as it does help to keep me on task when the infinite distractions of working from home (snacks, chores, errands, etc) come knocking, but I need to budget other distractions much more strictly. They aren't doing me much good, anyway – certainly less than what I'd gain with improved concentration and productivity.

Funny how these lessons keep coming back around every few years until you learn them ...

Comments

[frith]

When I hit the word combo James Baxter, I came to a sudden stop. James Baxter is the name of a horse in the Adventure Time series. Turns out James Baxter is also the person who voices James Baxter and who handled his animation. In the series, a flashback shows that the words James and Baxter arose from the horse misreading or mispronouncing the words games and bookstore. So, when I go to feed the miniature horses at work, I say: "James! Baxter!" The horses don't get the joke, but that's not surprising. They don't have a Web hook-up.

[tealin]

Yup, that's the guy. It's unendingly amusing to me that his name is known to a whole generation as a cartoon horse, because he's been an animation superstar practically since he started – he supervised Belle in his early 20s (doing the whole ballroom sequence), then Rafiki, Quasimodo, Moses, Tulio ... when I was at his studio he was overseeing, and doing most of, the animation in Enchanted. His work is always PERFECT; he's the Mozart of 2D animation. I'm not sure when he became friends with Pen Ward, but Pen put him in Adventure Time as an animation inside joke – the two of the hardest things to animate are supposed to be a horse and a figure on a ball; the latter is a walk in the park for superpowered James Baxter, and he supervised Spirit so he can draw horses in his sleep. Even though James Baxter The Horse is a silly naive cartoon design, he's still animated PERFECTLY. And the real James Baxter also lights up a room and makes everyone happy just by being present.

[frith]

The animation and scenery are the best parts of Spirit. The narration and the songs, not so much. It was one film I was happy to see in the French translation (several times at the local cinema) just to get away from Matt Damon.

Cool tidbits! Thanks! Scanning through your handy list of feeds, it seems probable that James Baxter doesn't have the drive to scrive. Oh well.

[tealin]

No, he's not really an internetty type person ... I wish he would, as he has a lot to share, but I can respect that.

Yeah, I can imagine Spirit being infinitely preferable in a foreign language – I saw it first in English, though, and I don't think I have the patience to sit through it again! If I have my information right, it was originally conceived as a wordless film about a mustang captured to serve in the Civil War, and I haven't quite been able to get over it not being that ...

[lumiere42]

Managing destructive distractions = good, if you also remember that you're not a machine when it comes to productivity ... the brain needs some varied stimuli for optimal productivity (and depression avoidance), too. (Not to mention muscle stretching's importance.)

Any ideas on how to keep from being distracted by the Internet when you have to have said Internet running to *do* your job? Internet-blocking programmes aren't useful in that situation, obviously. (Current job tracks everyone's hours worked through an app; it does work if it's switched on and the Internet connection is turned off afterward, but whether it'll upload hours accurately once the connection's back is iffy.)

[tealin]

My favourite tool for controlling Internet abuse is Cold Turkey – as streaming radio and various other online services are essential for my job, too (not to mention needing always to be on guard for important emails) I had never been able to use the other tools, but this one lets you choose which sites get blocked and leaves the rest of the Internet open. I have about five sites where I waste most of my time, so I have them programmed in, and that usually makes enough of a psychological difference to me that the whole rest of the world doesn't pose much of a threat. The paid version of Cold Turkey lets you set up a regular schedule – say, 9-5, Mon-Fri – but I've only ever needed the free one; my schedule is pretty flexible so it's better to choose my hours and launch it each morning anyway. (I say 'each morning', I don't do it as often as I should.) It comes with a list of blocked sites which you can modify, or you can make your own lists for different purposes – for instance I have one that only blocks Twitter. Once it's running you can't shut it off without power cycling your computer, and if you try accessing your blocked sites out of habit (as I seem to do WITHOUT EVEN REALISING what have I become) it gives you a philosophical message instead. :)

Yes, a little mental refreshment and circulation is good ... this is what tea breaks are for. :) It's less about locking down into the concentration tunnel all day and more to do with being able to concentrate when you sit down to do so, rather than being prompted every five minutes by a distraction addiction that both eats up time and lowers the quality of your work even when you are concentrating.