In-Between Moments

            In this thing we call life, we’ve come to have an expectation of ourselves that we must use our time as efficiently as possible. The motivation for this varies from person to person – some feel they don’t have enough time to do everything they want or need to do, others don’t want to risk being bored – but regardless of their reasons, society backs up this idea that we should always be doing something. So we keep ourselves constantly in “go” mode, forgetting that some of the best or most productive moments are the in-between ones.

            This idea that we have to constantly be accomplishing something is drilled into us from the moment we’re introduced into the school system. Throughout the years of training, our time for ourselves gradually gets shorter, while the work hours get longer – not to mention an increased workload of homework. It’s all about productivity and efficiency. Then we hit the workforce, and it’s the same thing – productivity, efficiency, and hardly a moment for ourselves.

            Yet, looking back, aren’t the most memorable moments the ones that happened in between classes or work tasks?

            This hyper-efficiency has overflowed into our entertainment world as well. There are formulas for every form of entertainment designed to give the consumer the most enthralling experience – to the point where even our enjoyable activities have become exhausting. And in that entertainment, what parts do we enjoy the most? It isn’t the plot twist we knew was in there, revealed at the most dramatic moment – if it was, we’d have long since become bored of the same stories being told over and over. It’s the in-between bits; the interactions between the characters; the parts that make this story unique.

            I think our society has gotten hold of an idea that people who aren’t fully occupied will cause trouble – an old idea that has some truth to it, if only because people who are bored are looking for something – anything – to do. Yet, at the same time, at least an equal number of people cause trouble because they feel trapped in their own lives and are trying to break free, making the solution of keeping people occupied very flawed. Instead of keeping people out of trouble, we’ve developed a system that people to the limits of their endurance. And since not all people are the same, some are able to rise above the system and laude it, while others are broken by it.

            As if that system wasn’t enough, we’ve taken each of those pieces of our lives and made them as efficient as possible – at work, because time is money, and at home, because we have so little time left over for ourselves. We’ve gotten really good at being efficient, to the point where those gaps in the middle get smaller and smaller... Those gaps where we used to have little quality moments with friends or family. Or, perhaps, when we could catch up on something we’d fallen behind on – now, if we fall behind, we often have to stay behind.

            The worst part is that by becoming so efficient, by shutting out those in-between moments, we’re actually losing productivity. For people working intellectual projects, they’re losing the ability to let their minds work on problems in the background. How often have you figured something out only after you stopped working on it? Again, I can only speak for myself, but I find that happens several times a week. As for people with more physical jobs, being exhausted all the time makes them work slower and more prone to mistakes.

            We try to blame these problems on sleep and to fix them with caffeine, but it never seems to work – because, what we really need is to allow ourselves more time to ourselves where we aren’t constantly pushing to get things done. We need to allow ourselves those moments where our bodies and minds can regroup between tasks.

            Those little in-between moments aren’t just enjoyable; they’re healthy and, contrary to common beliefs, they increase productivity and efficiency by making us more capable. They’re what make the difference between a perpetual cycle for working so that we can work some more, and working to fund a life worth living.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Work or Play?

            I have often wondered about the appeal of certain aspects of video games. These aspects are not, by any means, in every video game, but they show up in a lot of them. So, why is it that we enjoy playing games that, when it comes right down to it, are a whole lot of work?

            I’m currently playing one of the older versions of a game called Harvest Moon. This is a game series where you play a character trying to run a farm in a little village. You basically have to build the farm up from scratch while trying to make money and trying to be part of the small community (maybe even getting married). But there is only so much time in the day, your character only has so much energy in a day, and you start with very little money. In the beginning, the game is all about time management and money management – once you get a ways in and have your farm established, it’s about maintaining a daily routine to keep your farm going. Doing the same thing, day after day after day.

            Sounds an awful lot like work, doesn’t it?

            Another game that I played way too much of when I was younger is Runescape. This is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. There are many aspects to the game, but an important part is trying to get various levels raised. At lower levels, this is fairly quick and easy, but at higher levels you can literally spend days just mining, or cutting down trees, or fighting monsters, or cooking, just to gain one level. Day after day, doing the same thing.

            Hey, that sounds kinda like work, doesn’t it?

            Even in combat-heavy games like Starcraft or Call of Duty, you get an aspect of this – at least if you’re competing against other players and want to do well. You don’t just pick up a controller and become the best on the team – you have to work at it. At the professional level you have to practice and train, day after day.

            Doesn’t that sound like...? Well, yes, okay, at the professional level it is work, but you get my point.

            I believe the presiding theory about this is that video games give a sense of accomplishment without any risk to the gamer. This is a fair theory – you gain a level, and that is a reward for all your hard work. You defeat a difficult opponent and they reward you with treasure. You accomplish the same repetitive tasks one hundred times and you earn an achievement.

            Yet, it’s still just another type of work. Yeah, we don’t take it seriously because it’s a game, but it’s still work. And the general consensus is that work is bad and boring.

            What this tells me is that work can be made fun. All it takes is some gameification – the process of turning life into a game. Like Mary Poppins always taught us (not the blue one). This can be done fairly easy with a variety of apps, or simply setting goals and rewards for oneself, but that only goes part way.

We need employers finding ways of making their workplaces more fun. Having a fun work environment wouldn’t only make employees happier about going to work, it would raise productivity as people try to earn achievements or beat their best score. It would likely improve the employee-customer relationship – especially if the customer was happier at their job.

The augmented reality – being developed by companies such as Magic Leap – would make transitioning workplaces into fun, game-like environments almost simple. Can you imagine what the world would be like if everyone loved their job? That’s a future I’d like to see.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Heat Wave

            I don’t know about the rest of you, but we just had a terrible heat wave over the last week. Luckily I didn't have to deal with the heat itself all that much, but it did get in the way of the usual running of life.

            Colleen and I had just started getting into our new routine – we actually had a work schedule set up for ourselves and it was already improving our productivity – when this smouldering heat comes along, intent on hanging about all week. It came along and spoiled everything.

            See, our home is set up like this: we have one room downstairs which serves as dining room, living room and kitchen, while upstairs we have our bedroom, workroom and bathroom. Only the downstairs is air-conditioned.

            To further this, our workroom contains a lot of electronics which produce heat, particularly when they’re being use. While we make chainmaille, we always have a movie or show playing because – let’s face it – no matter how much patience you have, if you’re making as much chainmaille as we do, you need something else going on to keep your brain from melting.

            So, we had two choices: work upstairs in the sweltering heat, adding more heat to the point where it would be impossible to sleep at night, or move downstairs while lowering productivity. Unsurprisingly, we chose the latter.

            But we’re nothing if not adaptable. I often read to Colleen while she’s doing various chores or tasks, so that’s what much of the days went to for me. We finished Take a Thief (Mercedes Lackey), went through the whole of Homeland and most of Exile (R.A. Salvatore). Meanwhile, extra housework got done, a little chainmaille was completed and, while I wasn't reading, a lot more writing work got done than usual.

            Finally a thunderstorm came along and broke the heat. Usually “it never rains but it pours” is a negative saying, but in this case it was delightful. Now we can get back to work as usual. Although, I must admit – as sore as my throat has gotten at times, I'm going to miss reading so much.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Low Productivity with Results

            The downside of being a self-employed introvert is that I have almost complete control over my schedule. How is that a downside? Sometimes I just can’t be hard enough on myself.

            See, vacations are great and relaxing and all that, but, in other ways, they’re also quite tiring. For people as introverted as me, they’re downright exhausting – I mean, I get tired just thinking about leaving the house.

            So, this week, there isn't much for me to talk about. I got some work done, but not nearly as much as I should have. On the bright side, I finally finished this wonderful chainmaille shirt:

            It has 46 hours of work in it and would have been completed in 5 days if I hadn't needed to wait for more materials. I'm very proud of how it turned out, though – it has a tricky double-layered part over the shoulders and the stag’s head transfers from one layer to the next – a process made doubly difficult by the weave going in opposite directions on each layer.

            Beyond that, my wife and I also took my grandmother out to an appointment and had lunch with her. It was the first time we've seen her in several months and it was great to chat and catch up with her.

            So, even in a week of low productivity, the week wasn't a complete write-off. It’s still strange to think that we’re so introverted that having a vacation tires us out enough that we need time off to recover from it. Hopefully next week will be more productive and I’ll think of something more interesting to talk about.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.