Two Words Forward...Something Shiny! by James Hanback, Jr.

Remember how technological advancement was supposed to make life so much easier? A few days ago, I sat in a restaurant watching my step-daughter work some of her amazing illustrative magic with her pencil and sketchpad while we awaited the delivery of our meals. I thought to myself, How nice it would be if I could just sit down and work like that whenever I'm waiting on something or someone else. That thought was immediately followed by that problem-solving voice in my head; the one I developed after having spent more than a decade solving other people's information technology problems.

Why can't you? it asked.

We have all this mobile technology at our disposal: laptops, tablet computers, smartphones. Even carrying a simple notepad and pen with me when I know I'm going to spend some time waiting on something would enable me to at least get some ideas into a form more solid than the tiny electrical impulses that gleefully leap over the chasms between the banks of synapses in my brain.

Even in our technology driven age, we the people still spend a great deal of time sitting in wait: at a doctor, in a restaurant, in traffic. Why not fill that time with something productive? On second thought, you probably shouldn't try to write while in traffic, but you get the idea.

Yeah, I answered myself, why can't I work anywhere at any time?

Our food arrived just then. It landed on the table in accompaniment to the startling sound of a pot, a pan, or some other kitchen implement crashing to the floor in another area of the restaurant. Suddenly I realized why writing in wait would never be a viable means for me to get any work done. I would never be able to concentrate.

Like many writers, I find that there is a specific mixture of routine and atmosphere that help me summon the muse—even the will—to sit down and put my fingers on the keyboard. One ingredient in that mixture is a total lack of audible distraction outside of whatever music I might have queued on my iPod to help me conjure a mood. If I can hear people talking, I'll inadvertently tune out my music (and my writing) while trying to overhear the conversation. If a neighbor's dog is barking or someone's playing music that contains earthquake-inducing bass, I can forget about trying to write at all because both of those external audio forces easily overpower my ability to focus.

As much as I complain about not being able to make time and space to write outside of my day job (which, luckily, just happens to involve writing), I believe that any attempts I might make to write in a restaurant would result in more frustration than focus. Besides, meal time is probably the best time of the day to do the one other thing that I complain about not having enough time and space to do: appreciate my family.

Maybe instead of lamenting my own inability to concentrate on my work in public the next time my step-daughter decides to start drawing during a meal, I'll gently nudge the sketchpad out of the way and ask her a single open-ended question: "How was your day?"

There will be plenty of time to write when the day is done.