Last week, I spent an entire week alone in a rental on Airbnb. It was a pretty comfortable stay with electricity and even running water. However, its minimal space and limited activities helped me put aside the many distractions of the every day and focus on reading and writing.
Attempts of the Past
This wasn’t the first of the so-called vision quests I’ve had in my life. A couple times in the past few years, I’ve set aside some time for solitude and thinking. My current journal dates all the way back to November of 2017, in which I attempted a brief backpacking trip with next to no gear.
Last year, I tried to make a trip out of Fourth of July weekend, again in the woods backpacking. I was able to get a decent amount of journaling and thinking done, but there are a number of lines ranting about the conditions of the bugs and heat.
These experiences have definitely helped me to think about what I am looking for in a trip like this: isolation, limited comforts, and shelter.
This Time Around
I’m happy to say this year went much better. The accommodations were pretty nice. The building was maybe 30×15 ft with a kitchen and bathroom. Having electricity allowed me to use my tablet for writing and reading ebooks and my phone for listening to music and podcasts. Running water meant I could shower, wash dishes, and stay hydrated. The one utility I didn’t want to have was the internet, and luckily there was none.
The building was out on a pretty large set of shared properties out in rural Missouri. The front door actually faced a large overgrown field with a small path of woods nearby. One of the only downsides was the nearby road into town was a very narrow highway, and so my running route was out and back along the driveway, a roughly five minute loop.
Even with this excellent balance of comfort and limitation, I still struggled to focus. I was easily distracted from the intention of the trip, to think about where I wanted to direct my time and energy for the foreseeable future. In the first few days, I looked at vastly different activities to keep myself busy. One day, I spent an hour organizing old papers that I probably shouldn’t have brought in the first place.
I wanted to use this trip as an opportunity to explore plans for a project to really throw my weight behind. With my interest in trials dwindling, I want to put a stronger push behind a single idea or project.
Make Three, Share Two
The discovery I made wasn’t exactly new, but I definitely needed the reminder. Instead of fighting my flowing interests, I should use that as a strength. I am going to attempt a weekly production schedule of “make three, share two.” The plan is to complete three creations a week, be that a blog post, short story, or perhaps the chapter of something bigger. Then, publish two of those online somewhere, like this site or elsewhere.
I wanted to start with this standard and adjust going forward. My hope is that I can build up a backlog of blog posts, stories, and other projects that I can release over time. This may not be the ideal method of producing content, but battling against my tendency to spark interest in a given area at any time.
The inspiration for this came about when I started planning out the week into themes and projects, but decided I should just let my inspiration at a given time guide what I read, write, or listen to at a given time.
Rather than have a day dedicated to Dungeons and Dragons prep and another for reading different philosophy books, I spent a day finishing Ben Franklin’s autobiography, watching some DnD YouTube videos I saved, and then read books on the World of Warcraft lore. I also wrote a few paragraphs on takeaways I had on Franklin’s autobiography that I hope to make into a post soon.
I don’t know if this method is the optimal or ideal, but for a long time I’ve tried to focus on a single idea and failed to make substantial ground as interest shifted elsewhere. All I know is when I’m working on something I have serious passion for, even if only for a single day, working on it is effortless. I think of this earlier post on DnD in which the words poured out without much thought. I know it’s a subject I still have much more to write on, and there will likely be a few related posts in the backlog.
Being able to disconnect and take some time to relax has me excited and ready to take on goals and challenges I’ve been putting off for a long time.
Trying Out Before Buying In 