{"id":6519,"date":"2016-03-14T12:11:43","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T17:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/?p=6519"},"modified":"2016-03-15T08:28:02","modified_gmt":"2016-03-15T13:28:02","slug":"intense-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/2016\/03\/14\/intense-focus\/","title":{"rendered":"Intense Focus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"LandscapeOne of the best ways to begin a new week is by reading Jack Cheng<\/a> letters distributed through his newsletter. I love the way he looks at things and, even more, how he puts his thoughts and experiences to words.<\/p>\n

I have yet to read a weak letter, and some of the things he’s written over the years are some of the better essays I’ve ever read.<\/p>\n

The latest letter<\/a> is about how much can be done over a hackathon day, a focused lunch, or a retreat.<\/p>\n

The Retreat<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Come tomorrow — at least on the calendar — it’s exactly one month until the annual writing retreat. Here’s how it usually goes down:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Friday — Late morning, a friend and I head out to a Texas state park, where a cabin serves as our base for the weekend. On the drive, we catch up on life. When we get away from the traffic of the Dallas\/Ft. Worth Metroplex, we chat about writing.<\/li>\n
  • Friday Afternoon: Check into the cabin, look around the grounds a bit, and then sit down on a hard wooden chair and write. (Maybe with a beer within reach.)<\/li>\n
  • Friday Night: Writing, and then a drink or two around a campfire (or just sitting outside in the dark, depending where we are and if there’s a burn ban or not). Writing is discussed.<\/li>\n
  • Saturday Morning: Wake up early. (I tend to wake up first…I usually wander around enjoying the quiet, or hit a hiking trail (depending on the park).) Maybe a little writing before all this, but that quiet time is nice.<\/li>\n
  • Saturday (Almost All Day and Into the Night): Writing. Sure, this can be done at home on almost any given weekend, but there’s something about sitting in silence across the table from another person also<\/em> writing that makes you focus. Maybe for some, it would be a distraction, but for one weekend a year, I find it refreshing.<\/li>\n
  • Saturday Night: A drink or two around the campfire (or in the dark). Depending where we are, a visit from an armadillo. Writing talk happens.<\/li>\n
  • Sunday Morning: Hiking\/Quiet Time early. A little more writing. Pack up and head home.<\/li>\n
  • Sunday Drive: Writing talk most of the way home.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Not Much Time<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Looking at that rough schedule, it’s not a lot of time. I’ve known people who take week-long writing retreats with friends to other states. I can get a greater word count in a week at home than the retreat weekend. In other words, it’s not like you come out of the woods with that<\/em> much more than you had the morning setting out for the weekend. Only…you really do.<\/p>\n

    It’s kind of what Jack Cheng mentions in the letter above: there’s something special about dedicating a chunk of [short] time to a deeper-than-usual focus. Something comes out of it that doesn’t seem to rise up during the daily work necessary to get big stories written.<\/p>\n

    I work for a large tech company serving the travel industry, and hackathons seem to break out on a frequent basis. Intense pitch sessions and other things along those lines are not uncommon. And from those moments of intense focus have come some of our cooler products.<\/p>\n

    I say with confidence that a lot of great things come out of a weekend retreat in East Texas as well.<\/p>\n

    So here’s to a month from tomorrow, when we set out on the fourth annual writing retreat. It will be, as I’ve heard it said by some, DA SNAZZ!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    One of the best ways to begin a new week is by reading Jack Cheng letters distributed through his newsletter. I love the way he looks at things and, even more, how he puts his thoughts and experiences to words. I have yet to read a weak letter, and some of the things he’s written […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[46],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6519"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6519"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6526,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6519\/revisions\/6526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}