My Elusive Search for White Space and Why You Should Be Searching Too
In the living room of our apartment in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. September 2021
We have work scheduled on our calendars, as well as play and if we’re lucky, even spots of calm self-care. But is there any white space? A clear, wide blank? Zero? An open window of time, even if short, where we don’t have to be anywhere, do anything in our incessant march towards our goals.
Maybe we’ll walk, maybe we’ll stare into space. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll twiddle our thumbs. And no — thumbs on our phones, updating social media or online networking, does not count as white space. At least not in my understanding of it.
White space is that dance of our minds and bodies when we aren’t receiving. It’s when we are in-between, loose and free, unhinged from our schedule and our task list.
Jakub Paniączyk explains how white space enhances web design.
“White space, or negative space, is the space between the elements of your composition.” Paniaczyk writes. “It doesn’t have to be literally white or blank, though. It is a background with no cognitive weight for the users so that they can focus on the main elements.”
How To Use White Space in Web Design
Now how about we use this design concept and apply it to our day to day.
What are the main elements of my composition? Are they cluttered by noisy background with low cognitive weight, mindless distractions and by habits that no longer serve? What if I carved out more white space?
It is elusive though. When nothing is planned, I fill the space with information related to my main elements, which are writing and authorship, family and community responsibilities, as well as my insatiable desire for self-growth and enhanced productivity.
But even good information like mindset podcasts and books, both of which I absolutely love and will keep enjoying, are not white space. They splash their own colors and ideas, however inspirational and lovely.
I seek virgin white space for my own hues and thoughts, for playing and swimming in them freely. Even if it’s only for a teeny-weeny ten minutes. When I’m in white space I don’t want to feel the itch to dive into learning, listening, or picture taking, which I have a huge weakness for. Give me the smallest scene or moment, and I will be inspired to capture it in a picture. But at least during white pool moments, I wish to stall the greed for freeze frames.
And I definitely don’t want to be feeling guilty either about my long list of things to do. The thing is task lists are like mythic hydra-headed beasts. You keep chopping off their heads, they keep growing back. There’s no vanquishing them.
Career coach Michael Thompson argues that prioritizing white space is key to a productive week. He uses it for loose thinking or planning the future and reminds us that it helps boost creativity.
Prioritizing White Space is the Key to a Productive Week
Some might compare white space to meditation. I’m all for meditation. But if you’re sitting to meditate and have slotted time for it, as you should, that’s still not white space.
I’m talking about nothing, nada. No growth or objective planned. No task, however small. No effort. No agenda. Instead, a blank in the day to fill with blank. Sit and look at the trees, absorb the breeze, whatever. Feel. Be. See. Move the body and mind as you like. No target or goal in mind.
While I’m just beginning with white space, and don’t have as much of it as I would like in my days, I do have a plan.
There are different kinds of white space. In design terms, macro space is the wide space between different elements. I don’t think I’m at the stage of life where a 10-day Vipassana meditation, which would be a perfect macro space in my books, is a possibility.
Yet, there’s hope.
Just like we don’t need to wander into a forest for enlightenment. The good news is that we don’t need big steps or grand gestures to invite white space into our lives.
Micro space is also a design idea. Micro spaces, Paniaczyk says, are the smaller blanks between the elements that can be used to improve the clarity and transparency of a layout.
This I can do. I can build micro white spaces. I don’t have to glance at my phone or monitor media between say, finishing my writing work for the day, and organizing dinner. Maybe, here, I will pause, even if for five minutes. I will not refresh my inbox, scan my task list, or network over social media.
Instead, I will sip green tea without reading a word. I will look away. Out of the window perhaps at the statuesque maple in my backyard.
After those five minutes, I shall resume my battle with the hydra-headed monster of my desires, goals, tasks, and responsibilities.
Or better still, as I go along, and dive deeper into white space, the hydra-headed monster too will take a break and start sipping tea with me.
Now that would be something to celebrate. Maybe, I’ll even break out some biscuits.
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