Eyes on the Nail

Dad was a cabinetmaker…a good one. He taught us how to pound nails, saw boards and sand them smooth.

“Hold the hammer like this and hit the nail square on with even strokes”, he would tell us. Of course everything was a contest, so I’d look over to see how my brother was doing (or if he was ‘following dad’s instructions’) and at that moment, my eyes weren’t focused on my nail and I missed the nail or struck it at an angle and bent it. Then I’d have dad help me learn how to straighten it back up and hit it again. This happened many times. Sometimes the nail was so bent, we had to begin with a new nail. Same with the hand saw…one look watching my brother and my saw got off the line or jumped out of the groove and I had to begin again.

Even fairly recently on a table I was sanding a scratch out of…got carried away, wasn’t fully paying attention and sanded right through the veneer. Fortunately I knew how to fix it so it didn’t show, but…

Focus can be difficult unless you hold yourself to look at what you’re doing. It’s easy for us creative folk to have lots of thoughts and ideas going on at the same time…planning the next project, what’s for supper, did I pick the right stain color, how would it look if I painted it instead, how would so and so have done it if it were her project.

I read when our attention is broken, it takes 20 minutes to get back into the groove. 20 minutes times 6 interruptions a day is 2 hours lost time on our initial project.

For me it works best to decide what needs to be accomplished before allowing myself to take a break. Then the full power of my focus is on the project for that time, and when break time comes, my mind can rest and reflect on other things until I start on the next piece of work.

OK now. What’s next?