Modal Living

Minimalism is most often talked about in relation to material clutter. Get rid of your stuff, minimise your wardrobe, own fewer things, etc. This makes sense and I have nothing against it. However, as with so many things, it's interesting to see how we tackle modernity's challenges through modernistic means. Modernity makes us into materialists so we look at materialist challenges through a materialist lens. Simply getting rid of stuff is the means, but to what end? Surely, simply owning fewer things isn't the end goal? So what is?

In a sense, there might be a deeply rooted desire for simplicity of being, an uncluttered mind, a clarity of existence. Here, I must stop myself before this short text becomes a book. I must hit the brakes on the expansion of this subject and instead stay with the narrow, concrete, and specific. How can I move towards a simplicity of being and what is modal living?

Of all the things you do, how much of it is existential clutter? When you do something, like your work, how much of your effort goes simply in the exact direction of the work needed to be done? Are you effective, efficient, direct? Does the action have clear boundaries or do you move in and out of focus, in and out of the actual task so that the work seems to fill your time, diffusely, obscure? How much of what you do, see, smell, hear, sense, and which enters your mind is clutter? Or, inversely, how much of it is meaningful and right to you? What areas of your life are most cluttered? Not just physically, materially, but related to all that enters your mind and heart, words, sounds, visuals, all input? How open are your doors of perception and how does the flowing rapids of input feel to you compared to how you would like to live? Are you constantly wearing headphones, looking at screens, unaware of smell and taste? What is coming out of the headphones, into your ears? What is on the screen, entering your eyes? How cluttered is your sensory experience? Cluttered with things you haven't even decided. Links, words, images, thumbnails, clickbait, ads, disturbances, flickers, endless mindless scrolling, news, events, completely irrelevant most of it, why do you let it come to you? Why do you let it enter, mindlessly, allowing it to interrupt all attempts at mindfulness, all attempts at intentional, clear, simple, rich, calm, content, real living? Don't. Strive for a simplicity of being.

The concept of modes or modal living has bounced around my mind for a few years now. It mostly arises from my inclination towards musical analogies, in this case jazz. "Modal jazz is jazz that makes use of musical modes, often modulating among them to accompany the chords instead of relying on one tonal center used across the piece." If I am honest, with my musical abilities, I don't exactly know what that means. "Harmonic simplicity and space allows for greater freedom during solos". That resonates, doesn't it? Modal living can then be seen as creating harmonic simplicity and space that allows for clearly bounded freedom within the mode. Less abstractly, what can these modes be? They can be anything but here are some I've thought about for myself. Morning monk mode, data engineering mode, writing mode, weightlifting mode, climbing mode, running mode. Now, you are correct, if that is what you happen to be thinking, that this is a very left-brained, square, analytical approach to this challenge. First of all, bravo for coming to that conclusion. Second, it is an attempt to use the mental tools of modernity to tackle the hi-jacking attempts of modernity itself. It is reversing the direction of the leash. If you can live without a calendar, without a clock, without a system-entrenched job, without the bombardment of information, well, you have nothing to get out of this text. You've entered the realms of free jazz, whereas most of us are left grasping for modal jazz. Anyway, you might by this point have some modes in mind for your own life. What is the next step in moving towards modal living?

Choose a mode. In my case, for this example, I'll chose the data engineering mode which happens to be my work mode. What do I need to do and have access to for this mode? What is the most valuable output, the necessary outcome, of spending time in this mode? What are the common distractions and obstacles within the mode? What actions typically fill this mode which actually aren't relevant to its goals? What actions have the most bang-for-the-buck in this mode? Is this a mode wholly bounded in time, independent of what is done within it, or is the time spent in the mode dependent on certain tasks and actions being completed? Let's start answering some of these questions in the example of my data engineering mode:

Data Engineering Mode

• I need to have access to a computer with a good keyboard and mouse, preferably an external monitor, and headphones, as well as tools and software such as Visual Studio Code, the Azure Portal, SSMS, foobar2000 with a focus playlist, Github Copilot, and Todoist for tracking tasks. Also, something that greatly improves not just the efficiency of the work but the general well-being and feeling of this mode is access to great coffee.
• The most valuable output is data solutions such as functioning pipelines, work planning, code, automated processes, tests, documentation, dashboards, in general just smooth and nicely working data solutions.
• The most common distractions are communication channels such as Teams Chat and Outlook/email, as well as mindless internet browsing which I believe mostly comes from selecting music playlists on Youtube instead of locally, the thumbnails simply attract me to watching weightlifting- or coffee content instead of just focusing on the work.
• Actions that tend to fill this time that feel relevant but which often aren't are emails and Teams messages as well as reading about vaguely relevant fields. Also, simply browsing around the existing data solution and looking for things to do or simply spending time in Azure to feel productive.
• Actions that have the most bang-for-the-buck is direct testing, development, and writing code, often paired with an AI-assistant. This has direct value-creation in every minute spent. Note to self: I should strive to have the clearest possible task definitions for these actions to avoid any unclear thresholds to getting started.
• Is this mode bounded in time? That one is slightly more difficult on one level but not so difficult on another. I am hired, as are most people, to work 8 hours per day. Does anyone in the so-called "knowledge work" space actually spend time in their most valuable mode for 8 hours per day? If anyone does, they're several standard deviations from the norm. I believe the maximum amount of time that could be spent in an intensely productive mode is around 4 hours per day. I often work from home and strive to have the maximum amount of temporal freedom in my job. The reason for this is that I do not give a single fuck about how much time is spent working. I care about what gets done and getting it done in the least amount of time possible so that I have more time to spend in modes I love and outside of any mode. In other words, no, this mode is not strictly bounded in time. But because of expectations of availability decided during the rise of industrialism I am still loosely connected to my work in a bounded timeframe. Sort of. I do my best to avoid giving in to this madness. Never be chained to the green dot of work communication.

I hope this might give you some ideas on how to structure your own modes and find more simplicity of being in your life. Some ideas that have popped up for me while writing this are:

• I need to set up clear times for when I check email and Teams
• Define clear tasks for data engineering work
• Make a work playlist in foobar2000
• Find a way to initiate this mode on my computer which automatically starts all necessary software and places them in the right workspace
• Stay hypervigilant of when I think I am working but I'm not actually in any working mode, I'm just wasting time neither working nor living freely
• Could there be ways of making the entry into a certain mode even clearer? Such as a ritual of getting coffee, starting a certain playlist, being in a certain place, etc etc?
• How do I signal to myself that I am in a certain mode? A working outfit is probably a good idea.
• One thing I haven't written about above but that is central to modes is the use of timers to initiate modes and, if they're inherently unbounded, create boundaries in time. Timers are key.
• What places should a certain mode be tied to? What places should certain modes be forbidden in? I should never ever be in the data engineering mode while in bed for example.
• "Modal compositions often create a specific mood or atmosphere that remains relatively consistent throughout the piece."