Monday, February 27, 2012

Ode to White Space

Photo Challenge #7 is: Colors. I had some difficulty deciding on a color for this challenge. Black is truly my favorite color: sleek, simple and clean. Bernie has always told me that black is not a color. I thought about taking a photo of something green. That has always been Nick's favorite color, and also stands for all things environmentally friendly. My second favorite color is purple, and is also the color of our new bathroom. Bursts of pink are showing up around our house as we get ready for our baby girl.

Instead, I chose white, arguably another non-color color. White is normally the color I like the least. It is cold, sterile, hard to keep clean. The walls in our house growing up were painted mostly white, although my mother would argue they were really "egg-shell" or "jordan almond." I have rebelled against that by painting almost every square inch of my house a color other than white, including the ceilings.

White can stand for calm and peace, particularly in the context of "white space." What is white space? According to
Dictionary.com, white space is a noun; "1. the unprinted area of a piece of printing, as of a poster or newspaper page, or a portion of a piece of printing, as of an advertisement; blank space." My friend and former Enron colleague, Brian, defined white space as the room below your emails in your inbox, when your inbox isn't full. The way Outlook is set up for me, generally you need to have less than thirty emails to have any white space.
 
Here is my picture of white space. Not the best photo I've ever taken since it is intentionally not clear.

I have a love/hate relationship with email. I used to really like the ability to communicate instantly. It was easier than snail mail and helped me better keep up with far away friends and relatives. In the days of Facebook and text messages, email seems more time consuming, requiring more than a line or two of text. With the exception of very few people like my grandparents who don't have text messaging and don't like Facebook, I've all but gotten away from email for personal communication.

I think it may have been easier to practice law in the snail mail days. Electronic research was not available, correspondence and pleadings didn't necessarily require an instant response, and it took longer to get things done with dictation and typewriters. I often open my inbox only to find 200 or 300 emails waiting, the majority of which actually need my attention in some capacity.

Along the way I've picked up tips on gaining efficiency. While I can't remember precisely where it came from, one instruction was that it is most efficient to touch each email only once, fulfill any requirements, file it if necessary, and move on. While good advice, it is almost impossible to follow. All of my emails are delivered to my iphone. I often read them first there to triage the issue and determine if it requires immediate attention. Whether it does or not, I end up dealing with the email again in some fashion once I open Outlook on my laptop.

The other thing efficiency experts recommend is keeping your email closed and only opening it or dealing with it once or twice a day so that it's not a constant distraction. I'm not sure that would work since email is my primary source of communication. If there is some sort of emergency my coworkers know they can reach me quickly by email. I can't pick up the phone if I am in a meeting, but I can respond to an email.

White Space is a goal, an attitude, a struggle all in one. I try very hard to clean out my inbox everyday but find its often impossible and that I am falling asleep in front of my computer after the kids have gone to bed. When I achieve white space I feel like I've won for the day, like winning a game of Space Invaders by destroying all my targets. I find myself getting irritated with the people who unknowingly invade my white space, looking for ways to get their message out of my inbox as quickly as possible. My efforts at achieving white space are often frustrated by travel, taking a few days off, or working on projects.

Finding white space is symbolic of the struggle to find balance. It's not putting off until tomorrow what you can do today, getting to the gym everyday, eating your vegetables, spending quality time with the people you love, being organized. Sometimes work has to take a back seat when there is a family emergency. Sometimes work has to take precedence when a deadline is looming. In the end its really about being the best mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, attorney, employee, I can be, without losing myself in the process.

Somedays I am better at finding balance and white space than others.

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