How do you want to spend your time in life with the remaining time you have? What extraordinary work will you do?
Keep Going. 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad by Austin Kleon.
A couple of weeks ago, I got to meet and listen to one of my favorite writers, Austin Kleon. (He was the inspiration behind my newsletter). He was in Seattle, one of the stops on his book tour, promoting his newest release, Keep Going! The evening, moderated by Chase Jarvis, filled the listeners with creative inspiration. The group of us that gathered added to the bliss station of creativity with engaging and thought-provoking questions.
Both in reading the book and from Austin Kleon’s perspective during the evening event, two insights emerged around meaningful work.
- Ingredients for living an extraordinary life
- Analog mode is the preferred method of living
Ingredients for Doing Extraordinary Work
Austin Kleon’s prescription for an extraordinary life is to take ordinary life and give it extra attention. That is what makes life extraordinarily meaningful. This call to action sounds easier said than done. A lifetime is needed to fulfill this prescription.
In his talk Kleon mentioned that we need to re-configure our time and live like those in AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) by living one day at a time, one moment at a time. Focus on the day with the awareness of what season of life you encounter.
Analog mode is Airplane mode
The second insight from the talk and the book is that Austin Kleon is a huge advocate for living in airplane mode (not just while on an airplane but also as a way of life). Kleon challenged us to ask ourselves this question, “On what do you want to spend your time ?” He stresses that it is important to take a step back and think about what you really want to do with the time you have left on earth.
Analog mode (measuring life with the physical and not the digital) or airplane mode is about shutting off all the digital connections, where you put your phone in airplane mode and do the same metaphorically with other areas of your life. Set up space in your life where you disconnect from everything digital, and spend this time doing physical things, such as reading a real book, writing in a paper notebook with an actual writing instrument, or walking outside in nature.
Analog mode is meant to help you disconnect from the digital world so you can reconnect and refresh with the physical world. Remember, life is about living, so how do you want to spend your time?
Spend It All
Toward the end of his talk, Austin Kleon mentioned that he wants to make work that will last, work that heals and tidies things up, that brings people together and builds things up. He encouraged us to put work out in the world that is enduring and connecting, for this is journey we seek. Keep Going! is a book about time. Today is all we have.
Spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Don’t hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The very impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. – Annie Dillard
How are you spending your time doing extraordinary work?
I welcome your comments.
Jean says
Analog mode is really easy for me. I’m not a computer, kindel person. I like to hold a book. I feel more connected to the story. Of course if I took more time to learn more of the digital world I might feel different.
Living day to day is much harder for me.
Denise Pyles says
My favorite way to read is with a book in my hands – one of my favorite analog tools.