Rabbit Holes

Last Summer, I did a lot of research for my next book. I was pretty nervous to do it. I’m not an academic! I thought to myself. I didn’t feel qualified to be finding, pulling, interpreting, or organizing research. 

Before I got started, I didn’t realize how much fun it would be. When I finally convinced myself to try, I was bummed I didn’t do it sooner. There were no professors or collaborators critiquing my findings. I just got to follow rabbit holes until I got bored. Then, I did it again the next day. It was awesome. 

We all spend time going down rabbit holes. This is the experience of being on social media: waltzing along, not looking for anything in particular, until BOOM—you see something fascinating, and you try to learn more about it. Social media, however, is usually not very productive. Occasionally, we’ll find something that informs our work, but usually not. 

What if we purposefully set up this “rabbit hole time” to make it more likely to find things that further our goals? Instead of being spoon-fed engaging content, why not bookmark publications that teach us important things? Why not spend time on portfolio websites like Behance or Dribbble? Why not get a subscription to Scientific American?

We’re going to scroll anyway. Why not make it productive?