Focus by Leo Babauta

Leo Babauta, creator of zen habits, subtitled Focus “A simplicity manifesto in the age of distraction.” It’s an appropriate title for a collection of essays extolling the benefits of slowing down, clearing your mind, clearing your desk, and picking one thing to do at a time.

Babauta never claims it will be an easy task and even admits it’s not going to work for everyone in every situation. He does suggest that if you have even a small sum of control over your workflow, you can make meaningful changes and get more done with less stress.

I have to confess: I read this book in fits and starts in transit and on breaks and wherever I could find 10 minutes at a time until I was finally able to finish the last third in one extended uninterrupted sitting. As I write this review, I have the television on and am constantly switching my attention from one screen to the other. I fear actually tallying the number of hours I spend checking the black holes of Facebook, Twitter and Gmail. And clutter? I am its queen. If there is a target audience for this book, I’m in it.

Almost everything in Focus makes sense to me and yet I can’t yet visualize myself doing most of it. Specifically, two key parts would require me to make huge changes to my outlook: decluttering and disconnecting.

Decluttering is something I have struggled with my entire life. My parents bought in bulk and hung on to things “just in case” they came in handy, and they often did. As a kid, I just assumed this was how everyone lived, surrounded by Stuff. There is nothing new to me in Focus that I haven’t already read and tried to implement at some point over the years.

However, in one of the bonus chapters at the end of Focus, “How to create a minimalist workspace to find focus” by Everett Bogue is this sentence that I think I need to cross-stitch and hang somewhere obvious:

“Just in case” is a place in the space-time continuum that invokes clutter, but not much else that’s useful.

Or is creating the cross-stitch just adding clutter? Oh well.

Disconnecting is do-able for me, but I always feel, as Babauta suggests, like I am missing something. He rightly points out however that we are not omniscient beings and online or not, we are always missing many somethings. It’s an important concept to keep in mind.

These are just my personal hang-ups of course and it may yet be possible for me to overcome them if I wanted to. Is Babauta’s book the answer for me? No, but it is a solid building block. toward a happy medium, I suspect. He even offers some tips on how parents can focus without blocking out their kids and how to work with spouses and bosses in order to find focus.

Focus is a springboard book – it offers some key concepts in how to find and keep one’s mind open and clear by stepping back from some of the worlds’ distractions. If you are looking for somewhere to start, this is as good as any other you’ll find on the self-help shelves.

On the other hand, if you're thinking all this is BS, you're not alone. Penelope Trunk thinks Babauta's minimalist lifestyle is boring and requires too many sacrifices to be realistic for most people.

***

Buy the full book at focusmanifesto.com or follow the links to Amazon below for other formats:

Newspapers, Pennies, Cardboard & Eggs by Roger Yepsen ( Rodale, 2007)

For something that is supposed to be relaxing, gardening can be a frustrating hobby. Happily, this engaging book is full of both new and time-tested tips and advice for every gardener -- whether you are planting a few vegetables in containers or landscaping a large yard. It's just as useful to seasoned gardeners as to those just getting started.

Tips range from above-ground potato growing to deer-proofing your garden to building a rock retaining wall. All of them are written in a casual manner and most fit on a single page making it an easy book to pick up and put down or just browse through.

****

Coraline in 3D (Focus/Laika/Alliance 2009)

Coraline is a young girl whose parents always seem to be too busy for her. To make matters worse, she is stuck living in an old house with strange neighbours in the adjoined suites. Having just moved in, her mother suggests that she passes the time unpacking; her father absently suggests that she explore the new house, counting all the windows and doors. She decides to do the latter which leads to the discovery of a strange, locked door in the front room. When she unlocks it, she finds only a brick wall on the other side.

Later, however, the door opens to quite a different place, a place that is familiar and yet, better. Her "other" parents dote on her and make sure she is always happy. She is confused but happy and has no idea at first how much is really at risk.

Coraline is based on the best-selling book by Neil Gaiman. While the plot stays fairly true to the original text, additional characters have been added to explain things which, in the book, were left to the reader to figure out. Happily, though, the movie is just as tense and scary as the book -- scary enough that many reviewers are suggesting it is not suitable for young children. Our not-quite-8 year-old accompanied us, however, and loved it but we also took her to see Tim Burton's Corpse Bride in the theatre at age 5.

Technically, Coraline is a wonder to watch. Filmed in stop-motion animation on sets filled with hand-crafted wonders, there is far too much in each scene to take in during a single viewing. Coraline is also being released in 3D format (which we saw) which can be a bit disorienting but is a good fit for this movie. I will admit that I am not a huge fan of 3D as a rule but it is used well here, giving dimension to her world rather than making the audience jump.

Often, animated films depend on good vocal performances and the actors here did a fine job. Terri Hatcher was ideally cast as the mother/other mother and what the other mother turns into and Spink and Forcible were played perfectly by Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.

Overall, this film is well-worth seeing on the big screen. It may scare small children but most will be fine and a few may even want to read the book which I highly recommend.


****

Sublime Stitching and Subversive Seamster

Crafting and DIY culture is all the rage these days and there are plenty of books to support emerging and weathered crafters; this is a review of two of those books.

First up is Sublime Stitching: Hundreds of Hip Embroidery Patterns and How-To by Jenny Hart (Chronicle Books, 2006). Embroidery is the craft-of-the-moment and every indie crafter worth her salt has been jumping on that bandwagon. I learned basic embroidery way back in eighth grade and have been improving on my skills ever since. I picked up Sublime Stitching thinking it might help me bring my skills up to date since the book I usually reference was written in 1956. Alas, that old book is infinitely more useful than Sublime Stitching which is primarily a book of patterns rather than a reference -- there are only 48 pages of text (including the index and photos) and the remaining leaves are patterns.

I can't even admit to being very inspired by Jenny Hart's designs, but I suppose for someone who can't draw, they would be useful as guides. Personally, I am happy that I took this book out of the library rather than purchase it but only because my skill level seems to exceed that of Sublime Stitching's intended audience.

Next up is Subversive Seamster: Transform thrift store threads into street couture by Melissa Alvarado, Hope Meng and Melissa Rannels (Taunton Press, 2007) which is on the other end of the inspirational scale. With increasing media emphasis on going green Subversive Seamster's message of repurposing thrift store clothing merges the green and DIY/craft movements.

While there are some projects I would never attempt (there is no way at my age that I would wear a skirt made from a football jersey), others (like the bottle wrap made from a sweater sleeve) are no-brainers. The real message of Subversive Seamster however, is that with a little planning, you can make wearable clothing and useful accessories out of even the ghastliest of thrift-store cast-offs; the authors really empower the reader to think outside the seams and get creative.

If you are a needlecrafter, I heartily recommend Subversive Seamster, but only beginners should pick up Sublime Stitching.

Sublime Stitching : **
Subversive Seamster: ****