I sit here writing this as Spring Quarter is nearly upon us. I am finishing up the last two of many courses in a particularly heavy load, and still waiting on some materials for both. It’s a weird time; I know there are things that desperately need finishing, and there are other projects I am giving short shrift right now due to my development work, but there is a strange sense of calm that occurs just before the very end. It’s almost a sense of inevitability; the quarter’s going to start whether we’re ready for it or not, and so sometimes it’s better to just sit back and let things ride.

The job of instructional design can be likened to the vaudeville plate-spinner. Many things are going all at once, and it takes not only focused effort to keep spinning each plate individually, but concentrated effort to observe and monitor all the processes at once. Too much focus on one plate, and the rest fall; not enough focus on the big picture, and they all fall. With so much to keep track of, how can we manage to keep up this breakneck pace?

My answer is not to.

It’s not really about the pace you keep, as much as your ability to focus in the way you need to be able to at the time. This means that having a strategy for focusing on tasks is key, and having a strategy for knowing where to focus is even more key.

The third key point is the ability to lose your focus. If you spend all your time focused laser sharp on the small details, you’ll miss the big picture. Think of a pointillist painting: it looks like a test pattern up close, but the picture appears once we move back and take more in.

While the first two focus strategies are undeniably important, with deadlines looming I am reminded of the importance of the third point. Let’s explore some strategies to get ourselves out of a rut and make things a little blurry, so to speak.

You Need Time to Think

With every course come design questions: how many, where to, how to deliver, how to assess. It’s tempting to try and put everything in the same bucket, but then you end up with a bunch of courses that are plain vanilla and boring to everyone, students and instructors alike. In order to avoid just designing the same course with different names, it’s necessary to think. And you can’t do much of that when you’re staring at seventeen courses that all need the same things on paper.

Build in time in your development process to just sit and think about what you will do. This might mean you have longer pauses in between development phases, or it might mean you need to start development on a course earlier in the year. But giving yourself time to let your mind wander a little will do two things that will benefit you tremendously: first, it will make you pause and think more about the steps you are already making, and second, it will take the pressure of mounting tasks off a little while you take a step back and look at the course as a whole. It’s the art of seeing the forest, rather than just a tree, or a branch.

If your location is getting you down, try a change of scenery. I like to take a walk around my building a couple of times a day; it’s not a long walk, and it’s not a very exciting view (under the L tracks downtown), but it gets me out breathing different air, looking at different sights, and hearing different sounds. Very often I am walking along, rolling an idea over in my head, and this is the point where I see what I didn’t before. I am literally thinking outside the box in this case.

And Learn

Don’t underestimate the importance of lifelong learning on our profession. Even as you are stuck in your office with blinders on grinding out your courses, there are people in other offices at your school and every other who are doing the same thing, and they are coming up with great ideas too. Keep in contact with colleagues who have good ideas, and read up on the work of others. Taking a half hour away from course development to read some emerging research can yield many new ideas, and be well worth the time spent. If there isn’t research on your topic, perhaps it’s time for you to do some research of your own. Your colleagues will thank you!

Conferences are great opportunities to learn as well. While it’s true that preparing and presenting is also hard work, there’s nothing quite like having a good presentation and hearing praise, comments, and ideas from all the people who came to see you with the same questions. Many of my best ideas have come from conversations with others in the same situation. Other people can help us break out of our narrow-minded focus and “see differently.” Also, you don’t even necessarily have to be an active presenter to get ideas, just a good listener. So even if you’re a little less comfortable directly asking your colleagues for ideas, you can still absorb them by osmosis in a good session.

And Play

There are days when this job is tedious. Sometimes you may grind away for hours on a course, and feel like you’ve gotten nowhere. Other times, you spend a long time working, and then the instructor sends you materials and you realize they’re not going to fit your glorious master plan. You have to have a way to just let it go and regroup. Here’s where the play part comes in, and this is my favorite part.

Music!

I have music on all day in the background, either from YouTube or streaming a radio station. I find the wordless stuff is usually the best, as it doesn’t distract me as much. I am fortunate enough to be able to work from home one day a week, and it’s a great release to be able to walk into the other room, pick up my guitar and just play for fifteen minutes. Sometimes the best way to get new ideas is to think about something else entirely.

Toys!

I’ve got toys in my office too. LEGOs, a Rubik’s cube, a kaleidoscope, a prism, and numerous squishy balls (great for throwing at the wall), among other things. Giving your hands something to focus on other than the typing and writing and mouse clicks can let your brain work through a problem in a way it might not if it just keeps doing the same things over and over again all day.

Activities!

Although I personally do not, I know a few people here who work out at lunch. There’s a gym in the basement of one of our downtown buildings, and they use lunch time to work out, shower, and head back. Physical activity is a great way to take a break and allow your body to refocus your mind. I do Tai Chi at lunch sometimes, and just moving through the form in my office helps me let go of the things I’ve been stressing about, look around, take stock, and figure out what is important now, and what is not. I can take time and focus on what I am doing, not what I should be doing.

Take a Break!

No matter what strategies you use, remember that you are more than your work. “All work and no play,” as they say… While what you do is incredibly important, it is also important that you are always at your best, and sometimes what you do when you aren’t working is every bit as important as the work you accomplish. Taking time for yourself, and your interests, and giving your mind time to think, process, and just plain breathe sometimes will serve you much better in the long run.

So start today. Put a little music on, sit back, take a deep breath, and find a toy to play with. You’ve earned it.