Travel-Based Urgency

Another old thought from my to do list app, now going the way of other Old Thoughts and finally getting added to the site:

There are lots of reasons I used to be “more effective” in my life, more capable of generating output or crossing off tasks, but part of me wonders if the lack of travel since 2020 is part of it. I got so much done before leaving for Wayward in September—far more than I really needed to. Tasks and projects that could very easily wait until my return became impossibly urgent. Items that had sat unattended in my notebook for months suddenly leapt to the head of the queue. It got me thinking about how often I used to travel for conventions and book tours and residencies, and what effect that must’ve had on my ability to Get Shit Done.

Any impending departure drives me to put my affairs in order as if I’m about to set out on a doomed expedition to the South Pole. It’s an old act-out, but one that’s served me for a long time.

It stands to reason that traveling less often robs me of these false bottlenecks of urgency.

What can I replace them with?

Context Creation

Caught up with Brendan and Celine from Hyperlink Academy yesterday. Brendan said something about how certain creators or teachers or people are drawn to context creation and man I can’t stop thinking about that phrase. CONTEXT CREATION! Maybe context creation in opposition to (or in conversation with) content creation? Dunno.

What I do know is that these days I’m far less interested in pedagogic mastery or academic power structures and far more interested in people who can cultivate an environment (physical, mental, emotional) that allows everyone around them to explore and get curious. Reminders and permission! Reminders and permission. Have I even blogged about how obsessed I’ve been with those two words over the last year? Dunno. But it’s coming up a lot.