micromoments

Thanks to technology, we’re able to maximize every moment, filling the time between meetings, deadlines and errands with a text, a tweet or a YouTube video. But maybe we’re missing something here. Perhaps those in-between moments matter more than we realize.

The Positive Power of Negative Space

The term white space shows up in different disciplines. In publishing it refers to the unprinted area around a paragraph or illustration. In radio it describes the frequencies between channels. In design, be it architectural or the visual arts, white space is not merely blank space. It creates the medium in which objects can exist at all. In essence, the negative space defines that which is positive.

In the business world of the 1990s, white space was used to identify the areas outside of the organizational chart where no one was officially in charge. If not managed proactively, these leaderless zones could prove a liability to a company. A decade later white space was recognized as a realm outside of the shadow of the predominant corporate culture, and therefore fertile territory for innovation and entrepreneurial activity.

Translating Space into Pace

We’ve been talking about space, but it’s really more about the pace of how we move through our day…how we spend the minute that isn’t already allocated.

Here’s a SAT vocabulary word that captures the macrocosmic significance of the microcosmic instant: liminality—“the condition of being on a threshold or at the beginning of a process”.

Please join us over the next few blogs as we cross the threshold into an exploration of micromoments and the potential implications for our minds (micromeditation), our bodies (micromotion) and our evolution (microlearning).

The cool thing about technology is that as much as it has the power to distract us, so in equal measure can it focus us. We look forward to sharing with you the apps and other online resources that can support us in fully inhabiting the interstices of our lives.