Mindfulness and time management

Jenny Odell, Can We Slow Down Time in the Age of TikTok? NYTimes, 31 August 2019.

My students are growing up in a culture that is even more intensely individualized and fiercely competitive than it used to be, a punishing, Adderall-fueled version of my teenage years. I understand why it might be difficult for them to slow down for a class where I have them make painstaking collages, go on walking tours and take high-resolution scans of everyday objects. They are worried about their debt loads, their résumés, their careers. In my classes, they are liable to wonder why we’re spending time on something supposedly impractical. Time is precious; time is money. [...]

I can’t give my students more time in their lives; but what I try to do is change the way they think about and value it in the first place. My class typically includes students who aren’t art majors, some of whom may never have made art before. I give them the same advice every quarter: Leave yourself twice as much time as you think you need for a project, knowing that half of that may not look like “making” anything at all. There is no Soylent version of thought and reflection — creativity is unpredictable, and it simply takes time. It can be hard for them to accept that, since they are steeped in a mind-set of productivity hacks.

When I am bird watching, a favorite pastime that is, strictly speaking, “unproductive,” I have noticed that my perception of time slows down. All of my attention is collected into a single focal point, kept there by fascination and genuine, almost unaccountable interest. This is the experience of learning that I want for my students — that I want for everyone, actually — but it’s a fragile state. It requires maintenance.

That’s why I build time into my classes for students to sit or wander outside, observing something specific — for example, how people interact with their devices.