Metropolis: Learning to Juggle

Finding yourself mentally stuck, with a need to "shift attention"? Lucille has some thoughts on that in this month's Metropolis

 
 
During the winter months I am definitely someone who doesn’t spend as much time outdoors as I do the rest of the year. Confirming conventional wisdom and neurological research, almost any outdoor foray provides a change in scenery that allows my brain to shift attention and re-energize. While sometimes I do my most creative and exciting work on momentum, sticking with “it” (whatever it is) until I arrive at a problem’s solution or complete a project, sometimes I need the exact opposite: a break to sharpen my focus when I return to the task at hand.

Or more accurately, the tasks at hand. Which is where the juggling comes in.

On warmer days I relish spending some time outside: whether in my small yard the days I’m at home or on a break in a public plaza—one of the small urban oases near our office. In one of these alfresco squares, I often see jugglers—that perfect metaphor for multi-taskers—practicing at lunchtime, even on mild winter days. Solo or in rotating sets of partners, they tend to be relaxed, under no pressure, tossing about a variety of objects of different sizes, shapes, and weights, practicing their timing and honing their coordination and collaboration.

For me, there is both an obvious and a more subtle connection to multi-tasking in watching the jugglers.

We’ve all used this image to describe dealing with more than one issue or undertaking at a time. Although some research suggests that no one really multi-tasks efficiently, in the real world life rarely hands us just one issue or task or crisis in isolation. Some cosmic sense of humor likes to pile on the complications. Why else would we have expressions like “it never rains, it pours” and “feast or famine” and “if it’s not one thing, it’s another”? We may need to turn our attention to one thing at a time in a given moment, but we still have several balls in the air, and if our attention to our multitude of tasks lags too long, things fall apart.

And then there are the more implicit levels at which juggling is an apt metaphor.

The actual craft of juggling is not easy—I’ve personally tried it to no avail: after attempting to learn the basics for hours and hours one summer day, all I had to show for it was sunburned shoulders. I am fascinated watching the different styles and energy and approaches that the plaza jugglers display. And the more I watch them, the more I realize that there are parallels to the way each of us multi-tasks, juggling a variety of responsibilities in our own way.
Like the time two guys were working out how to juggle back and forth with one tennis ball, one baton, and one rubber chicken, reminding me of what it's like to undertake endeavors with diverse demands and differing deadlines at one time. Making sure to keep pace with one project, I still have to do my best not to drop the ball on the others, which may be at entirely different stages.

I’ve seen jugglers start relaxed and almost lethargic in their movements, or full of fun and mischief, or serious and focused. Then they move into a more sustained style. Some get frustrated when things drop. They may keep working on their own skills or lay responsibility on their partner. Some are able to relinquish perfectionism long enough to figure out why an item fell and what adjustment is needed to keep everything in the air until they have reached their goal.

Here’s the parallel: when I work to meet deadlines and high standards, and my colleagues—or life—throw more items into the mix, things don’t always go smoothly. Sometimes I can adjust my rhythm in stride and manage my various tasks with aplomb. Sometimes I can’t hold everything up and something plummets. How I respond and whether I manage to get all those beanbags or balls back in the air and complete multiple undertakings is a lesson in style, stance, and strategy from the best jugglers.

Which reminds me, it’s just about time for a break. I wonder if there are any jugglers out and about today. They offer lessons well worth learning.

"Metropolis: We Hereby Resolve..." and "Meeting People Where They Are", The Leadership Program, 2015