Some day, I’ll take the time to add up the total number of basketball games I’ve played in my lifetime. If I made a conservative guess, it would be around 500. If I made a wild guess, it would be 1,000. I think, however, the actual number might be between 600 and 700.
When I interviewed for my current position on the Night News and Digital Media Desk with Managing Editor Randy Parker, my basketball career came up. Randy told me that he felt like athletes or former athletes were uniquely suited to handle the rigors of journalism. Athletes, Randy said, know how to take a beating and get back up. Journalists should too.
But there’s another element to journalism that closely mirrors sports: time.
We’re always on a deadline here, but according to designer Tom Chung, that might not be such a bad thing.
Speaking in August with self-described “style” blog Co.Design, Chung laid out his vision for”a boom box-esque timer that ‘aims to re-create the dying seconds of a basketball game, on your desktop.’”
In other words: A shotclock for life.
Chung said that the motivation for his design came from two places. The first was when he found that his office was far more productive if they set aggressive deadlines for their work.
The second was when he rediscovered his love of road hockey, which made him realize that “there needed to be more products to get adults back into being active.”
“Ultimately, it was a project about having more fun in our day-to-day activities,” Chung told Co.Design.
On average, Americans spend more time at work than they do engaging in any other activity, according to a 2011 survey, and the U.S. has, for many years, been flagged as one of the world’s most vacation-deprived countries. But despite the increased awareness of our totally misplaced priorities, The Huffington Post reported that we’re actually working more since the recession hit.
Let’s face it, taking time off just doesn’t seem to be in our DNA, so maybe Chung is on to something when he makes a case for lightening the office atmosphere. Perhaps the best way to find greater balance isn’t by cutting one activity, but rather by better merging play and work.
Chung’s line of sweaty jock inspired furniture turned work appropriate has yet to roll to production, but when his shotclocks do hit shelves, maybe I’ll buy one for my cubicle. Or maybe I’ll just improvise and just “stiff-arm-dunk an empty Dasani bottle over my cubicle mate without a hint of apology,” as the Co.Design team suggests instead.
York Daily Record cubicle hoops tourney anyone?
