It's been about a month that I've been involved in a research project requiring participant observation. Fascinating stuff, really. Brings me back to my days of studying Native Americans and how easily they could embrace the desiccation of their culture. As an Italian-American, I remember well Boston's North End Festivals, Gloucester's Blessing of the Fleet, the various cultural excursions my family took part in when I was a child. There was always the statement that these American versions weren't like their Old World counterparts. Later I studied the Asian-American communities and spent time with many masters. One gentleman, fresh from Taiwan, was disgusted by the Lion Dance he saw during one New Year's parade and raced out to show them how it was done. It really doesn't matter what culture or ethnic group you're talking about or studying, the laws of immersion and submersion remain the same.
These same rules apply to how people time manage their day and that brings us back to the rhythms of life. Because we are biologic creatures and because our evolutionary heritage is time-sensitive, our underlying natures is to establish schedules and maintain them. Our bodies do this at the very urbane level of having to eat, sleep and excrete at fairly regular times. Miss one meal, not too bad. Miss two meals, watch out. Sleep deficit is well recognized as a problem. God forbid we have irregular bathroom patterns.
And if you're not sure that these are real concerns, take a gander at how many OTC drugs are aimed at food intake, sleep patterns and keeping us regular.
People change jobs, change responsibilities in their jobs, even such subtle things as get moved from one project to another, and all these things work to upset that rhythm that our underlying biology wants us to keep. Something everyone complains about and few act upon, emails and the related deluge of information from blogs, news readers, stock tickers, everything working to convince us that It is more important that whatever we're already doing, hence we must interrupt our pattern, disrupt our non-conscious attempts to establish a rhythm, and hence fatigue, exhaustion, irritability, inattentiveness and (sometimes I think) momentary insanity grow.
What I believe I'm witnessing with this latest research is much the same as I witnessed with cultures, except at the personal level. We come to a new situation with rhythms in place and start to adapt those rhythms to the new situation. Whatever doesn't cleanly map across we modify or replace completely. Then our non-conscious works with our underlying biology to make up and catch up.
The trick -- and what I'm suggesting to others -- goes back to previous posts on voluntary simplification and email bankruptcy. Determine what is important now. Attend to it. Forbid interruptions, nor look for them. Yes, relax and let yourself walk, stretch or otherwise break your pattern, and recognize that such a break in the pattern is part of the rhythm. Monotony is as mind-numbing as too much information. Find your own best performance levels and stick to them. Learn your own golden performance ratio, the rhythm of your own life, and pay attention to that. Your mind and body will love you for it.
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