Clear Your Cache!

Molly writes...

We live in a digital age. It is hard to get around it. Although I must admit, there have been countless times in my life that I have tried. As I get older, instead of fighting it, I try to find balance with it. Embracing and recognizing the elements of technology that I am grateful for and then, of course, setting conscious boundaries around the elements that seem to hold negative energy. It is not a perfect science but an evolving relationship. We are overburdened with stimulation and information. Although we may not be aware of how all the constant, and fast-moving, data affects us, it does. It does not go through us; it takes up space within us.  

Recently a dear friend and co-worker was working on a lot of different projects all at the same time. Juggling many tasks, bouncing back and forth, and trying to manage them all in an efficient way. She was busy trying to multitask to get it all done. She had dozens of tabs open on her computer screen, operating all kinds of software and processing lots of information. At some point, one of the programs she was trying to run on her computer was not working correctly. There was something preventing it from working, yet she had double-checked everything. Why wasn’t it working?

Finally, after trying everything she could think of, she reached out to technical support for help with the problem. His first suggestion was for her to clear her cache. She reluctantly agreed, but with much grumbling, certain it could not be that simple.  

For those of you, like me, that didn’t know what it means to clear your cache, here is a short description. Clearing your cache helps because it removes temporary data stored by your browser from previously visited websites. By clearing it, you allow your device to download the latest version of a webpage, potentially fixing display issues, improving loading speeds, and resolving problems caused by holding on to outdated cached information on your device. In short, you are cleaning up by getting rid of things and putting things away. You start with a blank slate, and you can then open or take out the stuff that you are working on in that moment.

She willingly but doubtfully went ahead and cleared the cache on her computer. All the open tabs had to be closed, all the history cleared, and all the programs put away. It was a pretty simple task, but she did have to stop and put everything away she was working on. It was a forced break from the juggling and multi-tasking. When she opened the software program that she was having the issue with, it worked. Clearing her cache had solved the problem.

Later, as she was telling me this story, I was captivated by the message it was sending. I couldn’t help but think that in this situation we, as humans, are not that different. We take on too much at the same time by working on too many tasks, taking out too many projects, having too many materials out without putting any away, and partially processing information without finishing or resolving the task. All of this gets stored in a temporary space in our brains and works on overdrive trying to stay relevant and ready to be worked on at any given moment. Our multitasking intuition tells us that by doing this we are being efficient and that it would take more time to take things out and put them away each time, but we are overtasking our brains and bodies and we as the machines work much harder, slowing down processing time and potentially not able to work correctly.

I immediately took this concept into my own world. I realized that I, too, needed to clear my cache. I had too many projects going on at the same time. My desk was filled with half-started tasks, lists and notes. I had materials out, and surfaces covered with items I was not using. It was all reloading every time I looked at it, being partially processed and being stored in my brain, slowing it down.

I started to think about the idea of ceremony and how we need processing and transition time to hold a project or experience together. Although we can easily talk ourselves into thinking this is wasted time, we as humans operate better when we are focused, and allow ourselves to warm up as we begin to do something and cool down when we are finishing. The time we take to pull out the materials for a project is the warmup and the putting away is the cool down. When we skip these steps and just keep it all going all the time, our machines get taxed. Taking the extra time to separate out our tasks by taking out each one only when you are working on it, and putting it all away when you are not, will make you more productive and less overwhelmed. Instead of seeing this as a waste of time or too much effort to set things up and put things away, think about it as time for your brain to prepare to work at its full potential and see the putting away as a signal you are done with this task for now.

I think about this with my Zentangle practice. When I take the extra couple of minutes to organize my space, remove distractions, and put away all other tasks, my breath seems slower, my pen seems a little lighter and I appear to find that flow state a little faster.

All of this is much easier said than done. Our lives get busy, we take on too much and our brains and bodies go into overdrive trying to keep it all going at the same time. However, we are more like our computers than we think, and every once and a while, if you take the time to clear your cache, you might just notice that you’re operating faster, smoother and freer than you were before.