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Anuvab Pal – Procrastination: A Beginners Guide
In Authors, Opinion on June 8, 2010 at 2:12 pmPerhaps the greatest movie scene explaining the art of writing was early in the film Adaptation where Nicholas Cage plays a screenwriter called Charlie Kaufman, sitting in front of a blank page. We assume his mind is swirling with lofty and great ideas, and then we hear them. His first one is “I should have a doughnut” and then, “No. I will write my name and then reward myself with a doughnut”.
When I tell people I am a writer, I’m sure this happens to a lot of writers – not at the Rushdie or Martin Amis celebrity level, where they don’t have to answer to “What do you do?” – I often hear “Oh, it must be great to follow your passion” or “Wow. Very nice. You do what you love”. It is assumed, perhaps largely because it’s true, that unlike being a cement supplier or inheriting a cell phone shop, people get into writing because they like it. Or realize, after doing some writing, that there may be something here, talent perhaps that makes them better at it than say, making a Chennai travel agency a market leader across the South in couples’ retreats. Of course, there is the demographic of writers (hopefully significant) who may be very good at it but completely hate it. I recently finished Andre Agassi’s biography and I expected anecdotes of how a professional tennis star’s life is filled with physical pain, injections, endurance, but found instead how he absolutely hated playing tennis. DH Lawrence it is rumored, drank himself into a stupor before he started putting down words on a page because he couldn’t tolerate the idea of consciously writing, and Christopher Marlowe enjoyed being a petty criminal and raking up massive gambling debts, just so he could be distracted from writing plays because people were always looking for him to kill him. I suppose when you’re on edge, preparing to flee any second, the fact that you’re penning Dr. Faustus, occupies only a corner of your mind. If that’s all he needed to write one of the greatest plays in the English language, I suppose the word genius is fair to attach.
For full disclosure, I am writing this paragraph a few hours after the previous two because I got a phone call. A flash of blue on my LCD screen I could have ignored, but it was far too tempting after seven minutes of tremendous hard work. The caller didn’t realize that my conversation was really a present to me. A celebration. The writers’ equivalent of popping champagne when he thought he was having a normal catch-up chat with a friend. That’s the other thing about the writing life – the joys are petty and secret and understood solely by the writer. And meaning is found in moments that mean entirely other things to people the writer is with. A prostitute could have mistaken a huge smile on Shakespeare’s face post coitus as a testament to their performance. But the smile may have been for striking the plot coup to end Hamlet. Yes, the old idea that writers will always be misunderstood is true but more than their work, it’s their working that’s misleading.
As a writer of plays and films, I essentially create scenes, which means the volume of words are slim, but in brevity must lie conflict, drama and matter, or so dramatic writers are told by Aristotle downward. What this essentially means is that I spend a large part of my life staring out of my window, in need of character and worlds, at part of a coconut tree from which hangs the sign, “Sree Annapurna Printers and Stationary Pvt. Ltd”. Actually, I only get to see “…ionary Pvt. Ltd.” and the occasional coconut. Now if I was asked, is it my passion to spend most of my adult life, through the most interesting times in human history, through the fastest technical advancements of mankind, staring at part of a photocopy sign in Bandra, I’d probably say no. But all is not lost, there is also the internet that has now eased the burden of aimless staring with more meaningful ways of procrastinating my writing, like Youtube videos of midgets break dancing or brilliant links titled, “Aliens in Mizoram: The Truth” or “Revealed: The Man Who Sold His Mother for an IPad”. It made me think of people like Tolstoy or Dostoevsky. Clearly they produced a number of pages a day, which one gets a subtle hint at from their body of work. Yet, surely, even working at overcapacity, that is concentration, which, they say the human brain allows at 9-second stretches, (with Yoga, apparently it can go to 15; I function closer to 2), what did these geniuses do on the 10th second? Ok, they banished an estate baroness to the Urals in Chapter 4, then they must have looked up and said, “Why is the vodka taking so long?” or “I hope that cute maid comes back to light the candles” or “From this angle, my wife is beginning to look like a seal”.
Chekov, smart guy, was a doctor all his life, so he made sure he had a good excuse every time he wanted to goof off. He had lives to save. Far more important than tinkering with this Seagull nonsense where nothing happens and once noble Russians exchange politesse, losing real estate.
Then I thought to myself, this is nothing to be ashamed of. Being trivial while creating supposedly great ideas is not like being a German cannibal or an Irish catholic pedophile or a genocide promoter. Yes, procrastination is bad. Yes, it is ok to admit that my mind is mostly – ok, entirely – filled with mediocre banalities and whatever little I do end up writing, comes from 11 seconds of hurried insight, which, at best, is something everyone already knows. But perhaps many writers feel this way. Perhaps Beckett said the same thing to himself while making Vladimir and Estragon chat with each other in Godot (which, ironically, is about wasting time and is a Nobel winner).
So then perhaps, once we are overcome by the guilt and realization that one’s writing life will be 70% wasted time and random meandering and useless staring, perhaps we can not only learn to live with procrastination but elevate it, like writing, to an art in itself. And maybe, over time, people will create a craft around it as well, and there will be procrastination workshops, dealing with the structure and narrative of not just wasting time, but wasting time well. As a starting point though, here are my top five recommendations of things to do. Needless to say, every writer will have their own style, flair, voice and comfort.
- Google: Every few seconds, Google yourself. Especially if there’s nothing on you on Google. The anticipation is pointless and you know well, futile. But the act itself is optimistic and destroys any belief in pragmatism.
- Font size: Play with the font size of your name. Italicize it. Get impressed. Whatever you are in the middle of, hopefully, which is the reason you are seated before the computer, will be broadcast, so derive joy from how big your name is / will be. Literally.
- Bio: Spend a lot of time on your bio. Especially, the “lives between” part. Typically, one sees people living between a big Western city and a big Indian city. You know that’s ripe for comedy, so play with various permutations of it, factoring in an undercurrent of snide socio-cultural commentary. So do “lives between London and Asansol” or New York and Bhubaneswar or if you want more hipster irony, do “divides his time between Asansol and Bhubaneswar”. Eventually, you’ll probably go with London and Delhi or some such combination, regardless of whether you do or don’t live in either. But that’s irrelevant, good time has been well wasted.
- Photo: This works well for novelists. Distract yourself by thinking of the look of your jacket photo. Certain things are given. Never, unless you sell extremely well, look directly at the camera. And never ever, take a color photo. Frowning is good, brooding is better, squinting of eyes sure, all three – ideal. Mirrors are great for this. I know it’s hard to look away and frown and squint and brood (unless you’re in a police mug shot) but do your best. Remember, it’s the effort we’re counting here because it’s translates to time being counted toward not writing.
- Getting up at critical moments: This works well for me. My wife is also a writer, so often I get up mid sentence of writing dialogue and just go and disturb her. Saying nothing specifically. Just nonsensical small talk as she tries to concentrate. In case your domestic situation is different, you can disturb anyone really. The main thing is getting up for no reason, just when you’re getting a good idea. It’s as if it is too much work to receive the idea sitting down, or receiving it is so much work that you needed to walk to calm yourself, or celebrate that you got it. What’s key here is some random activity when you should be sitting and focusing on where the good idea can lead. Sometimes, just getting up and throwing a ball against a wall works. Then you start thinking of maybe your teenage years of being horrible at sports, then you think it was the 80s, matinee shows, buying tickets in black, which might lead to some free association of 80s Amitabh movies, Bofors, Pronob Mukherjee, Vayadoot, airline turbulence, Naresh Goyal, just let it flow and continue – you’ve done well, a good 20 minutes can pass.
Of course, in all this, there is that grand question: Where is the genius? Where is the love of writing? And if this is the attitude, why not become a CPWD subcontractor or make manhole covers? Why suffer through thinking you have something to say when you don’t?
Alan Bennett, the British playwright answers it well in his new play when he says, it’s because if any of us are indeed genuine writers, it’s because we suffer from the habit of art.
The play is essentially about WH Auden (well really, a play about a play on WH Auden) and you expect the poetry and you expect the genius, but for most of the play Auden waits for a rent boy to show up at his Oxford cottage and give him a blow job. Something he looked forward to at the end of his day’s writing.
As the audience you’re thinking, if the poems did not give Auden pleasure, if the pleasure was as carnal as those of us that don’t have Auden’s mind can understand, then what’s the difference between this Nobel winner and me?
The difference, Bennett says, is that through all the wasted time, the thoughts of what else you could be doing with your life, maybe even doing some of those things, the habit of art, like an itch, the lover you can’t forget, a little drone, a twitching disease, has you. And no matter how much time you waste, whether you do it well or badly, you will still always, somehow, write.
*** ***
Anuvab Pal is an acclaimed playwright and screenplay writer. His screenplays include the award-winning Loins of Punjab Presents and The President is Coming. His plays Chaos Theory, Fatwa, Paris and Life, Love and ETIBDA have been performed at numerous festivals. Anuvab has also written for acclaimed sitcoms Frasier and Law & Order. His novel, The President is Coming was published by Random House India in 2009. He currently lives and works in Mumbai.
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November 13, 2008
Play is good for you (and it's good for business)
We talk about play around here a lot. Remember that play was one of the six aptitudes needed to be successful in today's world featured in Dan Pink's A Whole New Mind. I often associate at least one aspect of play and playfulness with the old Buddhist idea of the beginner's mind (or child's mind). That is, in the child's mind there are infinite possibilities, but in our adult mind (one filled with habits and routines) there often seems to be few. One of TED's newest talks online is by Tim Brown the CEO of Ideo. In this wonderful short presentation Tim makes many salient points about the role of play, playfulness, and creativity and why they matter in our professional or academic lives. You may be a designer of consumer goods, or a medical doctor, or a researcher, or a teacher — every situation is different. But listen to what Tim Brown says and ask yourself how the idea of play might be introduced into your organization in a way that would benefit workers, patients, and students, not only in terms of productivity but also in terms of simply having people feel better (and isn't there a correlation?). Watch the video below (or here in high-rez). Following the video I summarized some of Tim's points as I heard them.
Summary (in my own words)
Below is a quick summary of Tim Brown's points from the presentation. (The three slides are from Tim's presentation.)• Fear — such as fearing judgement from our peers — inhibits us and often prevents us from taking chances or sharing our ideas with others. Fear, says Tim Brown, leads us to be overly conservative and to keep our "wild ideas" inside. As adults we become overly sensitive to the opinion of others, we lose a bit of our freedom.
• Children who feel the most secure in their environment are the ones who feel the most freedom to play. Should not corporations, then, create the most secure environments that encourage freedom, creativity, and risk-taking...and even play? Why not?
• Playfulness can be pragmatic as well. It helps us find better solutions, more creative answers to complex problems.
• As adults, are we too quick to categorize? Do we too quickly come up with reasons why it can't be done rather than exploring the possibilities?
• Shocking people out of their normal way of thinking and getting them to forget their "adult behaviors" for a while (at least) can lead to better ideas.
• Old habits are hard to break, which is why (ironically) we need some rules (e.g., suspend judgement in brainstorming, etc.) in order to break free from the habits which get us down, which dampen the creative process.
• Experimentation is crucial. With constant experimentation, exploration you just never know what you'll find.
• Construction play is a powerful way to learn (classic "learning by doing") for kids. Adults can do this too (called "thinking with your hands"). This behavior is about prototyping and quickly getting something in the real world "...and having your thinking advanced as a result."
• The stuff that facilitates playful, building modes or hands-on learning, prototyping, etc. is abundant for young children, but is nearly non-existent as children move through the education system in later years. The typical office is even worse (except for Post-it Notes and the rare, coveted red stapler). We need to be able to work our ideas out more with our hands.
• Role play can be used to experiment with non-physical designs such as health-care services, educational settings, etc. We should take role-playing more seriously (as children do). Role play is important for putting ourselves in the shoes of the endusers, looking at the world and experiences from their point of view. Role play is an empathizing tool. (My question: Did the designers of economy seats on passenger jets actually sit in them for 12 hours while staring at a wall during the design process?)
• Playful exploration, playful building, and role play: three ways that designers (and perhaps you) can use play in their work.
• But play is not anarchy. There are rules, especially for group play. Play also involves negotiation. There are rules about how and when to play. One does not play all the time — we need to learn to transition in and out of play. The design process requires both divergent and convergent modes. Playfulness is particularly important in the divergent mode. You can be a serious professional (or student) and be playful.
• We need trust to play and be creative. The playing skills we learned as kids are not superfluous, they are a necessity.
Play like children play
Our societies condemn the adults who dare play. People say play is simply entertainment, passive, and undemanding. But there is nothing passive about a brain that is engaged, exploring, and discovering. Discovery happens, after all, through a kind of play. Learning happens through a kind of play. And a playful spirit is opened to the possibilities. This is just as true for medical doctors and scientists as it is for designers, business people, and teachers. (Below is a slide I use often that touches on this theme; excuse me if you have seen it before.)
Sample slide.(Note: As for the delivery of the presentation itself, I loved the idea of doing activities that got the audience involved with the speaker, with the ideas, and with each other. However, the computer onstage was a bit of a distraction. It's far better to place the monitors in front down low out of sight of the audience. It was not a deal breaker — it was still an inspiring talk — but getting the computer and lectern off the stage would have been nice.)
November 13, 2008 | Permalink
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Comments
Watched and love the presentation. Thanks Garr, I love being part of your tribe. BTW, did you do the slides above or were they are part of Brown's presentation? They look very good.
Posted by: Paul | November 14, 2008 at 01:33 AM
Great summary of the video.
My former employer has interviewed Tim for the McKinsey Quarterly (published last week): http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Strategy/Innovation/Lessons_from_innovations_front_lines_An_interview_with_IDEOs_CEO_2185
Posted by: Jan Schultink | November 14, 2008 at 02:49 AM
The slides are from Tim's prezo. You can see them near the end.
Posted by: Garr Reynolds | November 14, 2008 at 01:10 PM
On so many levels, this video made me a better teacher. This one blog will motivate my law students for a week when we begin contract law. I can see several applications where my students can be free to analyze case law. Seth Godin talks about the Peter Principle in his book as the fear that makes on incompetent. This is the first point made in this video. From this video, I have learned how to let go on some of my fear when attacking a new project. Thanks so much!
Posted by: Mike Fladlien | November 14, 2008 at 08:10 PM
I won't have the time to watch this before next wednesday but I'm looking forward to it. I notice that in times like these (where people fear the results of the financial crisis) they are fearless, i.e. more willing to run the lesser "risk" -- to be creative.
Posted by: Caroline | November 15, 2008 at 01:54 AM
MIchael Cimino was tragic loss to the film industry. After writing Silent Running and Magnum Force, he directed Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Deer Hunter and Year of the Dragon. Heaven's Gate virtually destroyed his Hollywood career, but hundreds of directors would kill to have DH and YotD on their resumes.
Tim's wrap up at the end of this clip reminded of a quote from Year of the Dragon:
""A great man is one who in manhood still keeps the heart of a child."--Stanley White (Mickey Rourke)
- D
Posted by: Dean | November 15, 2008 at 03:43 PM
At one of my previous jobs, I had to program a multi-million pound satellite. When we got the first prototype board, the first program I made it do was one which made some red LED lights on the side of the board flash … but instead of doing it randomly or one by one, I made it go in pairs from the outside-in and out again. It was exactly like 'Kit' in the Night Rider programmes.
I told my brother I did this so I could learn about the prototype model and that playing was the best way to learn something. He had started laughing at my way before my explanation and way afterwards too :-)
Posted by: Andy @ Retire at 40 | November 15, 2008 at 08:34 PM
The content was good. However, I was more distracted by the computer than Garr was. It wasn't quite a deal-breaker, but it kept me from sharing it with others. It wasn't just the location, but it was clear that he was depending on it too much.
Again, the content was good. I would like to see Dan Pink do a presentation at TED. Has he done one there before?
Posted by: Daniel Beck | November 24, 2008 at 08:54 PM
While I agree with the kernel of the presentation and the idea, it must be said that this level of
“play” can only exist in a perfect world. The VAST majority of companies, weather they consider themselves innovators or not, are not in the business to foster this behavior. It is idealistic to imagine that a for profit company will support this in more than word alone.
Sorry to say profit is motive. The correct spin would be a “long term profit realized through this level of creativity.” This being said, a company may talk long term, but they ALL think short term.Posted by: Mark Valmont | June 04, 2010 at 06:00 PM
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16 questions for free agents
If you're starting out as an entrepreneur or a freelancer or a project manager, the most important choice you'll make is: what to do? As in the answer to the question, "what do you do?"
Some questions to help you get started:
In my experience, people skip all of these questions and ask instead: "What can I do that will be sure to work?" The problem, of course, is that there is no sure, and even worse, that you and I have no agreement at all on what it means for something to work.
- Who are you trying to please?
- Are you trying to make a living, make a difference, or leave a legacy?
- How will the world be different when you've succeeded?
- Is it more important to add new customers or to increase your interactions with existing ones?
- Do you want a team? How big? (I know, that's two questions)
- Would you rather have an open-ended project that's never done, or one where you hit natural end points? (How high is high enough?)
- Are you prepared to actively sell your stuff, or are you expecting that buyers will walk in the door and ask for it?
- Which: to invent a category or to be just like Bob/Sue, but better?
- If you take someone else's investment, are you prepared to sell out to pay it back?
- Are you done personally growing, or is this project going to force you to change and develop yourself?
- Choose: teach and lead and challenge your customers, or do what they ask...
- How long can you wait before it feels as though you're succeeding?
- Is perfect important? (Do you feel the need to fail privately, not in public?)
- Do you want your customers to know each other (a tribe) or is it better they be anonymous and separate?
- How close to failure, wipe out and humiliation are you willing to fly? (And while we're on the topic, how open to criticism are you willing to be?)
- What does busy look like?
Posted by Seth Godin on June 02, 2010 | Permalink
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