[tweetmeme]Recently, I came across this article by Jack Cheng about something he refers to as Habit Fields. Cheng talks about how our mind is habituated to subconsciously reacting a certain way to certain stimuli.

Consider the desk in your office. Maybe it reminds you of when you opened the box and put the pieces together. Or maybe it recalls your first day at work, when your colleague showed you where you would sit. The desk, the computer on top of it, the chair you sit in, and the space they comprise are all repositories for memory. But these things don’t just store our memories; they store our behaviors too. The sum of these stored behaviors is an object’s habit field, and merely being around it compels our bodies and minds to act in certain ways. By understanding these invisible forces and employing strategies to shape them, we can enjoy more frequent, sustained periods of flow.

And as I read through it, I noticed that his advice, was in fact what I was going through ever since I got the iPad. I just needed some reasoning behind it, and a little more guidance on specifics.

The problem with computers is that they’re interwoven with our daily lives. We communicate, find entertainment, as well as put them to work. They do so much that it’s hard to live without one. But since they’re so adaptable to all these tasks, all at the same time, the mind is easily confused; distracted. It’s just the click of a keyboard shortcut that takes me from writing something in InDesign, to checking my @mentions in Tweetie (seeing the highlighted blue menubar icon). But what follows, is me checking my main timeline, finding an interesting link that points to 9Gag.com, which inadvertently means I’ve wasted a good half an hour of time I could have been productive with.

The iPad, on the other hand, is not a production device. At least not in the means we have familiarized ourselves with (though that’s a different discussion we could have later). What the iPad is, however, is an excellent consumption device. So much, that its browsing experience hands down beats any desktop, ever. Its Mail client is great for processing email (especially after OS 4). In fact, anything to do with reading, listening, watching (except movies), and internet communication, the iPad does better. You don’t experience any lag. You don’t have to manage windows. And you can experience it anywhere the you feel like.

The iPad effectively weans away any consumption tasks from the desktop without breaking a sweat. That leaves the desktop with just one thing. Production. I write a lot. I design. I research. It’s different for everyone, but work is work. Cheng calls for a restructuring of how we use our computers. At least that’s my interpretation of his article. To create a habit around an environment, such that our memory associates it with that kind of task. The moment you’re at your desk, you naturally begin your work (and not ‘ease into it’ by looking through the Tumblr Dashboard).

I have already begun quitting my Mail app after I’m running through my email tasks. I then quit Tweetie, and flung it out of the Dock, so as to not be impulsively check my twitter mentions. Sorry Brichter, but I agree with Cheng, your app is just too good at what it does. And there isn’t an RSS reader in sight. I need to leave Safari running for research, but I have changed my Top Sites from ego boosting sites like Favstar and stats, to news sites and admin dashboards. I’ve even begun shutting down other apps and services like Growl, hiding the Dock, and pursuing a more minimal desktop experience. Oh, and doing all of this has greatly freed computing resources, a very welcome side effect.

The one last piece of the puzzle, was changing my workspace. I used to keep the iPad at my desk, and constantly have email flow through, keep hitting Twitterrific, and get push notifications of Facebook activity. Cheng’s advice, in an effort to create a new habit field, is to separate not that only what you experience, but how you experience it. I have since begun keeping the iPad on the bed, right alongside the easy cane chair. If I feel the urge to check twitter mentions, just like Cheng, I need to get up, sit down, and do whatever it is I wanted to. Here’s what it all comes down to:

Likewise, the lounge chair’s habit field turns into a “leisure zone”—one that I know to stay away from if I have a deadline and need to focus. Sometimes when I realize I’ve been spending too much time in the chair, it’s easier to snap out of it: all I have to do is stand up and leave the zone.

After consciously conditioning myself over the last week, I can honestly say that this is a very real feeling. Granted a week is not enough to break years worth of mixed computing habits, but its a start. There is still some overlap, in that I use IM and listen to music on the desktop, write in Simplenote on the iPad. It might not even be possible with a future iPad that’s more powerful and capable, and convergent. But for now, I can feel something change.

That is not to say I’m no fun and only work (although my work is fun, but a different kind of fun). Now that I don’t surf those sites on the Mac, I use my iPad even more. And that’s a good thing. The very act of breaking them up into two distinct habits means I know how productive I’ve been, how much leisure time I allow myself, and can easily differentiate between the two tasks and able to make a distinct choice should need arise.

The iPad is here to change things. I can feel it every day I use it. It’s not like the iPhone, which filled a void that needed to be filled. It’s here to take something that already exists, and change it for the better. My only hope is that I continue practicing what I preach. Your comments are highly appreciated.

[Habit Fields, by Jack Cheng, at A List Apart.]