When you have a big project that doesn't completely occupy your mind.....

[nancylebov]

what do you think about while you're working on it?

At the moment, I need to do a huge amount of button business stuff, most of it fairly routine. (Two conventions on the same weekend, so I need two adequately filled sets of button trays.) And I've got resellers who wouldn't at all mind having at least 750 buttons among them--before my two conventions.

I've made significant progress, but I've still got a lot to do, and I think a lot of what makes it hard unless I've got someone to chat on the phone with is that I just keep thinking about how much more I need/want to get done. Focusing on the next thing isn't interesting enough because making the next button isn't that interesting.

So....when you've got a big project like that, how do you occupy your mind?
I'm especially interested in hearing from people who don't have huge problems with that sort of project. When I say "don't have huge problems", I don't mean "no procrastination", I mean procrastination kept under enough control that the work gets done anyway.

Comments

[ozarque.livejournal.com]

There are button conventions? Neat. I had no idea.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

No, or at least I haven't heard of any, and I bet that if there are, they're for people who collect antique/political buttons or possibly clothing buttons.

Um, language problem here--I make the kind of buttons/badges with pins on the back and sayings (usually funny) on the front. It's possible that I should be saying that I sell badges, but I've been calling them buttons for a long time.

They're for sale at NancyButtons.

Here's a slogan you might like: "First they came for the verbs and I said nothing, for verbing weirds language. Then they arrival for the nouns and I speech nothing, for I no verbs."

And one that was a revelation for me: "Some people have a way with words, and some people....um, thingy." Words come so easily to me most of the time that I'd never thought about what it would be like to to have a general problem with them.

Anyway, I sell them at science fiction conventions, mostly. The upcoming conventions are Shore Leave (a fan-run media convention) and Connecticon (anime, gaming, online comics).

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

Just for reference, I believe Steve Martin's original version of that was "and some people . . . not . . have way! You know what I'm trying to say." But yours definitely is better suited for a button.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

I do so hope you get some good answers here, because I have a mega-squirrel brain when things like this are called for.

Say, do you have a button that says "Born to multi-task"?

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

No, but I'll add it.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I've expanded it to "NOT BORN TO MULTI-TASK--all tasks please line up in order".

Danger, Will Robinson!

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

I am morally bound to warn you of the peril in which you are placing yourself. :-)

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

When I hve a huge 'hands on" project going, i cut into story mode.

Will you be at Worldcon? I want to buy some buttons!

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Yes, and I'll be glad to sell them to you. However, if you feel the slightest inclination buy some before then, come to my website.

[goldcube.livejournal.com]

This is probably an annoying, unhelpful answer, but it's true for me. If I'm engaged in some activity that doesn't completely occupy my mind, & there is a lot of it stretching out ahead of me, the only thing I've found that helps is making it completely occupy my mind. I've found that the most tedious mundane tasks become fascinating if I allow myself to fully engage them at the level of the senses. What you have to do seems easy for this - the beauty of the letters, the pleasure of the perfect movement executing the stroke, seeing the finished button, piling them up. If you can make your focus really small, the whole universe opens up in every, um, grain of sand.

My only other suggestion is listening to music, which seems to free the mind to day dream all over the place.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I could try that, though most of what I'm doing isn't calligraphy--it's putting buttons together and re-oranizin trays.

I have tried some meditation, including Taoist-flavored earth below/stars above stuff and it helps.

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

I'm with sartorias; I tell myself stories mostly. Sometimes I listen to music. It occurs to me that books on tape might be good too.

MKK

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

Varies. I had a job once typing addresses from a list onto 3x5 cards; I loved it because it occupied just enough of my brain to keep me engaged, but not enough that the rest of my brain couldn't go ranging about the universe. I got a lot of story-organizing done.

Sometimes I make a game of it. Like, when I had a biiiig sinkful of dishes to do, I'd save all the flatware for last, then wash each spoon/fork/knife/whatever individually, playing jackstraws with the pile in the bottom of the sink as I picked each one out to wash.

Sometimes I listen to music.

Some kinds of manual-intensive but not eye-intensive tasks I can read while doing.

[readinggeek451]

I usually listen to music. Preferably something I know/like well enough to sing along to at least part of the time.

[jadegirl.livejournal.com]

Podcasts and audio books. I knit and spin, so frequently I'm working on something that keeps my hands busy but my mind free, and audiobooks are great for that, as are podcasts. Most of the podcats I listen to are fiber art related, but there are a few that do audio recordings of books in the public domain, like Librivox (http://www.librivox.org/).

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

I was thinking music; audiobooks hadn't occured to me. As I mentioned on my own LJ not too long ago, the podcast of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me has become a part of my life, and is terrific as background for nearly mindless tasks like alphabetizing comic books.