There’s something about real time that makes it extremely important to me.
I’ve thought about (and even tried) writing batches of posts, something I’m fully capable of doing. When I do it, my brain bursts with ideas… but that only continues for as long as I write a batch of posts, every day. When a few more days have passed, I lose interest in what I wrote several days ago and I want to write more now; the value in the writing is in the right-now sharing, the reactions inside this 48 hours, the interactions that result. If I have a post queued up for every single day between now and the end of January, I feel let down that I don’t have something to write right now and post right now, for each of those days that is already filled. I miss the real time experience of having that conversation with the audience.
For some reason, I don’t feel this way about recorded music; I feel connected to the future audience when I make the recording. When it’s music, it somehow becomes timeless. It’s a conversation without words, and it lasts forever. But I do feel this way about recorded monologues and dialogues. That conversation feels most important right now, even if the value of the conversation goes on forever… for me, if I don’t experience the conversation now, I lose the real time value.
When I work with someone or help them with something, there’s a big emotional benefit (at least to me) in doing it real time, on the phone or (even better) on video chat. We can do it through email and that’s fine — and enjoyable, and engaging, and productive. But it’s much better with voices and moving pictures. And of course, nothing trumps being in-person. Emails can lag; email threads are more easily interrupted. The boost and focus that come from a real time conversation is much stronger, even if the work itself isn’t contained solely in that real time conversation.
Have you ever felt this way? Is it different for you?
Photo credit: VaXzine
