Today is the birthday of one of the most incredible women I have had the honor and pleasure of knowing and learning from . . . my dear friend, Akaya Windwood. Akaya was a leadership and diversity consultant when I first met her and is currently serving as President of the Rockwood Leadership Institute, which she describes as the “work of her heart.”

I learned a great deal about leadership and social and economic justice from Akaya, and I also learned a lot about living a good life from her. She introduced me to the value of slowing down, focusing on one thing at a time, and leading a simpler life.

When we met, I was working as the Operations Director at the Mainstream Media Project in Arcata, CA, where she came in to do work with us. At that time I prided myself on my ability to multitask, and she was the first person I ever heard say that multitasking wasn’t a good thing. I’ve since come to agree completely—and have grown to love single task focus.

Akaya also taught me the concept and technique of “wool gazing,” which is basically giving yourself time to daydream and gaze out at what is in front of you with soft focus. It gives our brains the opportunity to reset and start fresh on what we need to work on. If we never have time to daydream or to relax our hard working brains from the task of thinking, we don’t have the space we need to be our most creative selves.

This was illustrated for me beautifully by a story from another of my favorite teachers and mentors, Harold Taylor. Harold is in insatiable reader and prolific writer. When I met him in 2006, he told me he had read over 900 books on time management.

Each morning, Harold walks from his home to his favorite coffee shop and takes in the scenery and beauty around him. He arrives at the coffee shop, orders his coffee, sits down to write things like his Taylor Time Report —old school style, with pen and paper.

One year he received an iPod loaded with books about the brain as a Christmas gift from his kids. He put the headphones on, walked to the coffee shop, got his coffee, and when he sat down to write, nothing came out. There had been no time for resetting his brain and taking in the inspiration his walk to the coffee shop usually provided. He was too busy listening to his iPod and thinking. While he valued the gift, the walk to the coffee shop was not necessarily enhanced by taking in more data as he walked.

So I’m celebrating Akaya today and the simpler life I now lead. I encourage you to unplug on occasion, and take time throughout your day and week to wool gaze, and allow your brain to relax so you can be your most productive and creative self.

The Quotes:

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

~Leonardo Da Vinci

“Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.”

~May Sarton

“Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.”

~Henry David Thoreau

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