Do You Have Any White Space?

As an author I'm very familiar with the traditional concept of white space. The strategic placement of words,  pictures and graphics on a page allow the reader's eye to peruse the page easily without excess clutter. Much of this ease is caused by the use of white space, or empty space on a page. Additionally this concept of white space has crept into our lexicon about thinking. I'd like to apply white space more broadly to life.

We live in an information society. Microsoft's tag line use to read "information anywhere, anytime." It is prophetic of our age. This technological society provides easy access to all sorts of information, for free. We can read the New York Times, or Wall Street Journal online. All our friends and family can post the latest pictures from the most recent gathering and we don't have to be there. But most of all, we can scan and find information on any topic. Just pop an item into Bing and viola you have information. But isn't it getting to be too much?

Every morning I waltz through the world news, US news, sports, Positive Psychology News Daily, Harvard Business Review, Psychology Today and others. I scan the headlines catching some of the stories, but skimming most of them. So I am filled with information, but it has all been filtered and finessed by someone else. I'm really not thinking about any of it, just gathering.

So too, if you think about our lives, there is constant busy-ness. Most people I meet have very little time left in a day. Every moment seems crammed up with something and in the downtime, or the travel in between, we catch on all we've missed by getting on our phones or PDAs and finding out the most recent news.

Yet what we know about creativity, focus, strategy, calmness, etc, originate in quiet moments, in other words, in the white space of our lives. When we take time just to sit, we are not just sitting. We are creating worlds and words that others haven't thought about. Rather than just regurgitating information that's already been processed, we think for ourselves. Taking white space time allows us to think through the day and think through our lives so we make choices aligned with who we are rather than knee-jerk decisions.

I've place it in my calendar. It's an appointment for me every morning. I take white space time and allow my mind to just go wherever it wants. When I first started it was frustrating. I'm an achiever. I like to do things, so I was really antsy. But now I look forward to the moments and have started adding more during the day.

Make white space time; time to let you mind go freely where it will. You will be refreshed, energized, creative. It takes a little while to get use to the discipline, but don't give up. We all know when we look at a page that is too cluttered with little white space that it's difficult to comprehend anything. Now we need to examine our lives with the same discipline. A little white space helps our lives to be attractive and compelling.