Why You Need "White Space" in Your Daily Routine • Jocelyn K. Glei

Think about how we can open up our schedule and let some white space in — the mental equivalent of a light, airy room of one’s own that we allow ourselves to retreat to, and refuel, a few times a day.

It should be noted that a “room of one’s own” means that. We are not in a room of our own if we are looking at our phone, or waiting for it to alert us to some development. Skimming our social media feeds while trying to relax is like trying to meditate at a parade. It doesn’t work.

So let’s consider it a prerequisite to white space that we must put down our phone and step away from our computer.

This is a programming concept. “It means that each request is treated a new, without memory of previous requests.” It's the concept about the power of clarity. How we can focus on the task at hand, while not getting weighed down by all the junk we allow to pull at our attention.

While it’s not possible to completely clear our minds everyday, like a stateless object in a computer program, a clear mind is a compelling notion.

We can get a whole lot closer to this concept, if we create purposefully negative spaces around ourselves. Here's how:

Piles of books, half completed projects, reminders taped to our wall—all of which are filling up our physical environment and competing for our attention. Consider tidying up, and at least limiting our office clutter, will help reduce our distraction while lead our work to be more meaningful. 

How much is fighting for our attention when we’re creating—all those devices, all those steams, all that incoming noise? Give ourselves the permission to turn this all off, so we can turn our creativity on, and readily get into flow.

Create systems to hold our tasks, getting all our non-now actions out of our head. Any negative feelings or emotions feel like they are on the tip of our brain, then journal about them, which takes them off the front of our consciousness and frees up our mention load.

Consider building a few white space blocks directly into our schedule weeks in advance so that no matter what meetings or deadlines come up, we still have time blocked off to take a few moments and think about the big picture — or think about nothing at all.

Because if we’re all get up and go, we’re eventually going to go off the rails.