Friday Creative Boost: Tether
Soak in the importance of context and granular observation, aka Becoming an Ent
Happy Friday!
When I was a kid, I’d occasionally finish a standardized test fifteen or twenty minutes before the end of the testing period. After dutifully going back and checking my answers I’d have to just sit there for the remaining period (likely you’ve had the same experience). I learned to fill the time by making a map of the room I was in, often in great detail, noting the way doors opened, who was in each seat, where the wastebin was, and annotations about wall decorations.
As I grew older, I learned to take this experience to the great outdoors or to busy coffee shops or museums and rather than necessarily mapping - although I continue to do that - I’d write in stream of consciousness about everything I was observing.
That’s today’s activity, it’s a hard one:
Find a compelling place to sit for three hours in one spot. It can be an old haunt or brand-new place, doesn’t matter.
Silence your phone and take off your watch. Absolutely no notifications.
Bring a notebook and do your best to write constantly about what is happening around you.
There will be boring moments.
Time will drag on.
But then you’ll notice a new kind of liberating curiosity as you soak in the ability to observe what is in all its detail and depth.
Leaves rustling in the wind.
That small graffito left for the quiet observer.
The quiet beauty of a brick textured surface.
The unconscious facial movements of two people in conversation.
The smell of coffee being ground.
You reach insights that you cannot get to without long, slow, intentional observation.
Afterwards, review your writing. Where did this journey take you? How did your mental state affect your observational ability? What problems did you observe? The next time you embark on a project, how might you evolve your approach to noticing?