Here are two ways to describe the same idea.

One. Fog and Clarity. You’re bored and you don’t know what to do (fog). You decide that you will clean your room (clarity). You go to your room and you see that it’s so messy, you don’t know where to start (fog). You decide that what you need to do is first, sort things into piles (eg. dirty laundry, trash, unwashed dishes) then deal with the piles in turn (clarity). You then create all the piles, and now have to figure out what to do with the dirty laundry (fog), but the answer is easy (you put it in the laundry bin) (clarity), and then next is the trash and so on. You are able to go through the piles easily and without much thought, because the moments of fog are relatively easy to deal with. After you’re done sorting through the piles, you realize that your room is clean, and you have a momentary feeling of victory! Followed by the realization that you have to figure out what to do next (fog).

Two. Another way to describe a moment or period of fog is crisis. A small moment of crisis is just boredom. My old music teacher used to say how important it is to be bored / stuck, because (just like you have to be scared to be brave) you have to be stuck to innovate. Many people avoid crises, particularly existential crisis. For example, you may be unhappy at your job, but you refuse to quit, because if you quit, you would have to go through this deep, soul-searching period where anything is possible and you have no idea what to do. Some people are forced into crisis. For example, this happens when most people graduate from college, or retire, or their kids leave their house, or they have a debilitating injury. While these moments are hard in the short-term, I believe that there’s a way to engage with a “crisis” so that it has a transformative effect on your life.

Other ways to describe this concept: see the forest and see the trees; explore vs exploit (machine learning); productive & reproductive work; tangible & intangible progress.

Here are some observations about this concept:

• There seems to be a lack of vocabulary / lexicon in how to support someone through a moment of fog. If someone is graduating, your first question is then, “what kind of job are you looking for?” That assumes that they’ve resolved this rather large question, that they know exactly what they want to do next.
• Clarity is not always good. The reason is that people who have “Clarity” on what they’re doing might be doing a horrible thing to themselves / people around them. How many despots or autocrats have utmost clarity / conviction in what they’re doing? How many Big Oil executives turned a blind eye when concerns about climate change were brought up in the 70s? Cliff moments (eg. the death of a loved one, a disruptive moment) can force such people to take a more expansive world-view, if they’re ready.
• Clarity is the only way to get things done. The fog can also be called, “analysis paralysis”. When you’re in the fog, you’re not directly working on anything.
• Being in the fog longer can lead you to greater clarity. Here’s a great quote by Abraham Lincoln: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” The equivalent in life to “sharpening the axe” can be reading about philosophy, productivity systems, taking care of your body, etc.
• The fog may take most of your thinking time. Decisions take a lot of energy, as does prioritization.
• The fog can be particularly long when you’re doing something you’ve never done before.

My general feeling is that people spend too little time sitting in the fog. I include myself in that – though I’m good at taking a step back, I don’t often make a plan or clearly prioritize and identify what I’m doing. But it can be overwhelming, confusing, discombobulating, but also beautiful.