When I was a kid, I loved the Percy Jackson book series. It’s a great introduction to Greek Mythology with all of the action and intrigue to keep a middle school boy interested. In the first installment, The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson and his companions end up stuck in the Lotus Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Here, the characters are convinced by the casino staff to eat a lotus flower. The lotus flower causes them to lose track of time and of their important mission. Eventually they escape, but have been there for days despite it feeling like hours. I’m hindsight, the heroes realize that the casino is the lair of the Lotus Eaters, who have been trapping people in a state of carelessness and irresponsibility for millennia. Switching track to the Greek epic that we all read in high school, The Odyssey, eating the lotus makes sailors stop caring about their mission to return home. They’re willing to abandon the hope of returning to their families in return for a life of “peaceful apathy.”
The Modern Lotus Eaters
Screens create the modern day lotus eaters. Phones ward off all boredom and fill every free moment. By doing so, they prevent the thinking that leads to breakthroughs and the reflection that leads to change. The world of the screens are absorbing- they’ve been designed that way. So absorbing that getting sucked into one can easily eat up an entire free evening. For me, sitting on the couch and taking out my phone is the beginning of a night of fruitlessness. After sitting on the couch for 30 minutes, my mind gets sluggish and my energy dips. Then I’m prone to the dad stereotype of falling asleep while watching tv, complete with telling my wife that I definitely wasn’t nodding off. Staying on the couch after Marisa goes to bed is even worse because I’m more likely to be on my phone. Then it’s like I’m in the Lotus Casino. I could be spending an hour doing something creative but instead it melts away in a screen of flashing pixels. I don’t need to be doing anything important. An evening spent quietly reading or even chores is magnitudes more satisfying than one spent plugged into YouTube.
But sometimes I’m smart and I sit at the table to write instead. When I write at the table, my mind is much sharper. I’ve tried writing on the couch before and it doesn’t go well. Because at the table, my energy levels stay high enough to write and publish blog posts. On the couch, I’m not sitting up straight and my mind goes into “comatose on the couch” mode. If I can avoid the two lands of the lotus eaters- the couch and my phone, the evening doesn’t drift into carelessness. I get things done or I spend time reading or in reflection.
Last Week’s Experiment
Last week I did a little experiment. During my day, I used my moments of free time to write. I wrote at lunch and in between tasks. I avoided pretty much all non-essential phone use. The result was four straight days of publishing blog posts. And most of those were edited and published after painting for an hour or two after the little boys’ bedtime. I had more energy to write after doing tedious manual labor than I usually do after relaxing on the couch. This shows me that most nights, any excuse that I’m too tired to write is untrue. Instead, my tiredness comes from sitting on the couch.
Action to Avoid the Lotus Eaters
From my basic experiment, I get the following hypothesis- My ability to have a meaningful and fulfilling evening requires me to start with action. When I look at all the variables involved in my successful week, painting stands out. It’s not physically exhausting to paint for an hour or two. But it does get me moving around a bit. And it’s an activity that I can’t do while looking at a phone. These two factors are the reason I was able to have such a productive week. Once I’m up and doing things, it’s easier to move on to another active pursuit- even if the action is mostly cognitive, like writing. Once we move into our new house, I won’t have to paint any rooms for a while. But I can replicate the effect that painting has by planning out a task to do when I start my free time. Even if the activity is a chore, as long as it gets me moving and keeps me off my phone, I should get a similar result to painting. Painting kept me out of the land of the lotus eaters last week. It’s clear to me that regularly avoiding it requires regular doses of action.
On the heels of an extremely strong blogging week, I slipped back into lousy habits. This week, I’m testing my hypothesis. I have a list of actions I need to do when the quiet evening starts. For much of the week, it’s painting (in the home stretch now!). But for other nights, it’s simple things, like sweeping the apartment. For some extra accountability, any readers of the blog will know how the experiment is going based on blogging out put. I’m not saying to expect another four blog post week, but at least two more is a reasonable goal.
Sign up for the Frugal Jon Journal
