Make the Box Smaller

It's so easy to get overwhelmed. We do it to ourselves, and I suspect a rather primal trigger is at play. Many many centuries ago, our primal selves really needed to stay aware. We reacted to fast movements, changes of color, patterns shifting. And then we grew up and created technology that made things move faster and faster, brighter and shinier, and pushed our eyes in front of them all the time to make dopamine hits faster than twice a second become the rule, not the exception.

How many tabs are open on your browser right now? How many digital devices are within arm's reach and connected to the internet? How much news do you absorb today that really bears no immediate impact on you, consumed so that you'd "stay informed?"

We All Do It (But We Can Take Breaks)

I'm obsessed with this little clip from 2013's Man of Steel:

We can make the world smaller. It's better if we do. Even if that's a small break.

I'm writing this just a bit before bedtime. But after this, I'll shut down all screens, and listen to a bit of an audiobook. Some nights, I'll write the last paragraph of the day in my paper journal using a reading lamp. I started this habit after reading everywhere that screens before bed might be pretty bad for us.

I also deleted all social media off my phone. Guess what goes away when you do that? The urge to fondle your phone every few minutes nonstop. (I still have messaging apps on there, but those weren't my culprits.)

Oh, and I don't watch world news or any politics. Guess what? It's all bad. No change there. I have enough challenges in my world without plugging in to feeling bad. I vote. I also vote with my dollar and support organizations that align with my views where it's most feasible. That's the extent of it.

I made the world smaller.

Work Can Be Like This, Too

Sometimes, we get caught up in many things at work. When this happens, I fall back to the box around what I need to do for the year, broken down into what I might do today to move that stuff closer to "done." It's like how in agile you pull from a backlog. I've got a Trello board of the projects my boss needs me to handle. When I get a bit overwhelmed, I make the box smaller quite literally and just scan my Trello board. I pull a task from my backlog and try to move it to complete.

We worry about the future. We worry about something happening in another department. We talk about someone that's stressing other people out. When I can't fix something like that right away, I go back to my box.

Overwhelm Can Get Huge

Breathe. At dinner the other night, we talked about various breathing methods. It was an interesting conversation insofar as the different people having it were representing different applications of something as universal as breathing in and out.

One talked about free diving and how people learn to relax their breathing and to suppress their natural urges. Another was talking through an athlete's approach to breathing deeper and more fully. Another still discussed breathing in meditation. We all acknowledged the easy benefits of "box breathing."

• Take in a breath and while doing so, count in your head to four.
• Then, hold the breath for a count of four.
• Breathe out for a count of four.
• Hold again with no air for a count of four.
• And breathe back in for another four (and on and on).

It's one way to release stress quickly. Special operators all practice box breathing as a way to dissipate adrenaline responses and fear triggers.

Box breathing. Make the box smaller. Getting the theme here, right?

When we're overwhelmed with emotions, worries, stimulation, too much information, breathing is a great way to get us to a better reset point.

You Can Build with Small Boxes

Kids learn to use blocks from an early age. It shows spacial relationship skills, hand eye coordination, planning, physics lessons, and so much more. Just from stacking blocks.

It's okay to make the box smaller, to let less in, to breathe, to shrink your focus for a bit. More than okay, it's probably necessary.

And from this point, once the box is small again, build. Build what you want. Design with your own intentions in mind.

And take the world where you want it to go.

Are you with me?

I've gotta get off this screen (even though it's in dark mode and rather dim). I want to be able to sleep well tonight.

Chris...