I am a big believer in systems. I love a process. I adore structure in my life, my finances, my business. Recurring tasks and reminders, planning ahead, to-do lists, I use them all. I love to know that there’s a plan and that I’m using my time efficiently.
I came to a realization recently that I have over-indexed on efficiency, and, more importantly, that I’ve done so at the expense of creativity.
I’ve been working on a few big-picture projects of late. The kind of projects that require an unrestrained there-are-no-bad-ideas-in-a-brainstorm mindset to generate starting points. From there, you iterate and iterate until you arrive at a fully realized concept. I was feeling stifled and struggling to put pencil to paper to make progress. I decided to pause, take a step back, and look at my process. I found that I was stuck in a productive and efficient frame of mind that was creating unnecessary friction and subpar creative outputs.
While journaling about my frustrations, I wrote this down:
Efficiency is the enemy of creativity.
I realized that I needed to be intentional about creating the right environment to get the creative process started. And so, I ran an experiment. I blocked out time on my calendar away from my desk to work on the creative process. No phone, no SOPs, no to-do lists. I went for a walk (with a notebook and pencil, of course) to a nearby park, because studies have found that walking improves creativity. While it is January and my visit was brief, the chilly conditions and fresh air did focus my mind and I was able to get down some terrific ideas.
I’ve blocked out time on my calendar every day for the past two weeks to focus on creative work. I put my phone away and find a simple way to mix up my physical environment. This is as easy as going for a walk with the dog, grabbing a coffee, or moving from my home office to a different part of the house. Adding a little bit of friction into my workflow and intentionally leaving the comfort of my efficient desk setup.
I will continue to experiment and tinker with this process, but so far I am a happy camper. I have found that when I go out of my way to interrupt my well-structured patterns of efficiency and productivity and try something new I am able to make significant progress towards my goals.
++ Brett ++
Further Reading:
Stanford study finds walking improves creativity in the Stanford Report
This week’s inputs:
- Heat, Michael Mann’s 1995 crime film
- Priscilla Inspiration, a playlist on Spotify by Sofia Coppola
- “Two Hands” a short fiction piece by Caoilinn Hughes in the Winter 2024 issue of The Paris Review