You have way too many tabs open. Close a few.

Happy JULY & thank you for opening the first #TheLifeofJLOWE newsletter in just over a year!

Missed me? I sure have missed you. It’s been a whole year without this medium of reflection for myself, and while I’ve made it through relatively okay, I definitely look back at the past 12 months with a bit of regret and even grief at the stories that could have been but never were.

Lots has happened in the past year though, like Sweat & Salty Run Club hosting our first international run in NYC, and me passing 10K followers on my personal Instagram PLUS landing a bunch of brand deals in the process, making this journey all the more fulfilling.

But let’s jump right into what’s on my heart that brought me back to you today. 👉️ 

Do you actively close tabs on your internet browser?

If you take a look at my laptop right now, I have over 50 tabs open on Google Chrome. Every time I open my laptop, I have at least 5 different topics and 5 different sub-topics staring at me, and honestly, I get lost trying to find things sometimes.

What’s worse is that sometimes my laptop will reset and then Chrome will ask me if I want to “RE-LoAd TAbS fRoM mY LAsT sEsSiOn” and instead of starting over from scratch, here comes all of the fluff from the last time I was on my laptop - despite the universe blatantly trying to give me the chance to clear my plate for once.

All the times that I’ve actually decided to start my browser over from scratch, I’ve actually felt a real sense of calm as I get to gradually ease back into the chaos rather than be thrown back into it all at once. And of course, you know me - I found a teachable moment there.

Your energy is limited, despite having infinite destinations

Obviously I keep the tabs open so that I can return to them later, but the truth is that a lot of them don’t get returned to, and if they do, it’s weeks later and I realized that what’s in them wasn’t actually that important.

I keep things open like websites I want to visit, things I want to buy, documents I don’t want to have to search for again, or videos that I want to come back to later, and all it does in reality is make me feel like I’m going insane. 🤯 

When I get into Chrome, the thoughts go left, right and center and I can’t focus on what I actually opened my laptop to do. There’s so many things coming at me at one time, and so many places that seemingly require my attention that — at the end of it all — nothing really gets done.

I’ll scroll the Nike website for a minute, then remember that I wanted to watch Bad Bunny's Tiny Desk again, then go into meeting minutes that I was supposed to review, and then over to Canva to edit a graphic. 5 minutes on each, rather than 20 minutes on one, and so nothing actually got meaningful attention.

Your energy in life functions the same way as your attention. It can go to so many places, but it has its limits. Sure, you can do multiple things, but do too many things at a time, and you’ll quickly realize that you’re burnt out and have no energy to do others. We can try, but we can’t do it all.

Close the tabs in real life. Pick a task and do it.

While it might seem like this article is about the downsides of multi-tasking, it’s not. I more wanted to discuss the downside of yes, doing too much at one time, but on a larger scale.

On a personal level, I oftentimes think I do way too much. I work full-time, create content, manage a community run club, play steelpan professionally etc. etc. all while also going out and trying to have a social life and nurture friendships. It’s funny because I thought I was doing it all and balancing it all really well, but in retrospect I haven’t played my steelpan in a couple weeks now. More than that, it’s hard to go out on a Friday night when I have to host a run early Saturday morning. It’s hard to dive head first into content creation (that oftentimes requires daytime shoots) while working a full-time job.

I’ve had success in each of these areas, yes, but not as much success as I know I could have had if I devoted all my energy to one or the other rather than try to nurture every single one at the same time.

So a lesson I’m learning is to listen to my mind and my body as to when I’m doing too much and when something has to give, because the truth is that something will give, whether it’s what you decide to let go of, or what buckles and goes on its own under the pressure.

Conclusion

Now I’m not saying that you can’t do more than one thing in your life. The concept of a “multipotentialite” is very real and I also think very possible. However, what’s increasingly hard to do, is to do everything at the same time.

You don’t have to be writing a book at the same time you’re training for your first marathon or starting up at the gym while you’re applying to your next job. I’m learning to give things in life space, and give each pursuit its own season.

For me, music had a huge season in my life during the pandemic, and I’m sure will return at some point, but it has unfortunately taken a back seat to an extent for right now. And that’s a reality that happened without my consent. Writing this newsletter has taken a back seat too. But these things taking a back seat gave space for a beautiful community of runners in Jamaica to take shape. And it’s also given space for my thriving lifestyle social media presence to emerge with @thelifeofjlowe as well.

More than allowing things to have their season, though, I think my main lesson in closing my tabs is to not beat myself up for pursuing a certain endeavour at a given point in time, and to allow myself to remember that though one passion of mine may be in its season now, it doesn’t mean that another passion is any less of my identity or any less important to me as a person either.

It’s allowing myself to remember that there’s power in being able to close the tabs and clear my headspace to focus on something at a specific moment in time. And the beauty in it is that not only do you get clarity and the ability to thrive in your current pursuit, but closing a tab doesn’t mean it has to stay closed forever.

You can always re-open closed tabs. Focus doesn’t have to mean deletion of other passions or ideas. It just means channeling your energy to what’s important to you right here and right now, and giving your all to something in front of you, knowing that your energy is finite, and that it will be given to other things that are important to you in due time too.

So do yourself a favour. Close some tabs.

Until next time,

Justin