epicflood

Imagine a day when knitting needles are welcome in the corporate boardroom. The thought is inspired by an important discovery I made today, namely, that knitting makes for more productive listening, especially in situations where concentration is needed over long periods of time. Allow me to boldly offer the following hypothesis: Knitting allows the mind to achieve an alpha state that is infinitely more receptive to auditory information.

While I’m not quite ready to brave this experiment in public, a 3.5 hour remote web conference made for an excellent opportunity to test my Nobel-worthy theory today. Under normal circumstances, you’ll find me multitasking by running multiple desktop screens, answering emails, and catching up on research during these types of web-based conferences. In other words, all of the things that are supposed to make me more “productive.” Invariably, I eventually lose track of what the speaker is saying, and understanding is limited. The alternative to this is to sit in one’s chair and attempt perfect focus by resisting all urges to multitask. I’ve given this one a go as well, and trust me, it doesn’t work. Zen masters aside, I defy anyone to go an entire 3.5 hours without their mind wandering to thoughts like how it might be time to clean out the refrigerator or the contemplation of weighty matters such as whether or not they should stop for takeout on the way home from picking up the dry cleaning.

Listening while knitting, on the other hand, produces an entirely different effect. The repetitive motion of knitting quiets one’s mind like a simple mantra would, freeing one’s cognitive self to be fully present. I was able to absorb every. single. word. of the conference without any other mental noise competing for my attention. It was a beautiful thing. And I will never be able to admit it to anyone even remotely connected to my professional advancement. Never, ever.

Someday, we knitters will have our own Rosa Parks. She will bravely take her knitting into the boardroom and break down the barriers that corporate America has ignorantly placed on us. Engaged listening will flourish. Productivity will soar. Ideas will fall on fertile and receptive ground. And best of all, we will all be able to walk out of meetings with progress like this: