Serendipity in the City

 

For the past year and change, it's been all Zoom meetings, all the time.  And there is something seemingly efficient about being able to patch in with people from around the world all from the comfort of your desk.  Even when I meet with someone who is a few blocks away, my schedule is so cramped that it's not hard for me to breathe a sigh of relief that I have avoided the aggregate 10 to 12 minutes of leaving my office, taking the elevator down, walking down the street, signing in, and heading up to my meeting location, and then reversing course back to my desk.

 

 

But hold up.  Sure, it may seem like I've gained 10 to 12 minutes, not an insignificant gift when my days are so busy.  But I've actually lost something, too, and I'm not just talking about how it is vastly superior to meet with someone face to face rather than on a screen.  Think of what happens in the 5 to 6 minutes on the way to my meeting and then on the 5 to 6 minutes on the way back:

* It breaks up my day, which studies show creativity and insight happen not when we keep going without ceasing and stay in one place but when we move around and engage our brain differently. (Why else do you think you have "eureka!" moments while running or in the shower?)

* It's exercise and fresh air.  I can hear my fitness freak friend urging me on: "sitting is the new smoking!"

* I might bump into someone unexpectedly, and either strike up a conversation or make note to catch up later.

* I am engaging in the city around me: its people, its structures, its smells and energy and mood.

Thinking that Zoom meeting after Zoom meeting is the height of efficiency gravely misunderstands what work really is.  And I'm not even talking about Zoom fatigue, which I don't actually suffer from that often.  What I'm talking about is that my best work self comes not from packing my day with meeting after meeting, it's moving around, and taking in the sights and sounds of my city, and allowing my mind to make connections that might not otherwise make if just stuck at my desk, and making space for 1,001 serendipitous encounters that might lead to business or strengthen a relationship or underscore an insight.

Note that this is primarily an urban observation.  The analog in the city is walking to your parking spot, hopping into your car, and driving somewhere.  As I am fond of joking, I love the random collisions I get into with colleagues while commuting or in between meetings, but God forbid that you should have a random collision in the suburbs!  Yet another reason why I am a city mouse, I guess.