What is creative time management? How much time should you spend on a creative project?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In The Practice<\/em>, Seth Godin says that time management is extremely important for creative people. By setting aside a specific time of day for your project, obstacles won’t slow you down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let’s look at creative time management in practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n While trusting yourself<\/a> and establishing your intent are important to creative work, perhaps the most critical aspect of being a creative professional is creative time management, or working consistently despite the challenges that come your way. Godin advises that you spend at least an hour every day on your creative work<\/strong>. He takes the position that many of the apparent obstacles to producing good work\u2014lack of inspiration, failure, and creative \u201cblocks,\u201d to name a few\u2014are actually integral to your practice (or at the very least, they\u2019re not the threat they\u2019re often made out to be).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Creatives often speak of being \u201ctouched by the muse\u201d or working in a state of flow<\/a>. Indeed, there are times when it feels like magic infiltrates your work and genius flows through you. When you aren\u2019t inspired in this way, it can be hard to make progress, and everything you create feels flat and boring. It might seem like you only have two choices: Produce low-quality work, or give up for the day until inspiration returns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Godin says that letting yourself feel this way is a form of giving up your own agency. The truth is that inspiration shows up when you put in the work. You don\u2019t create because you\u2019re inspired; you\u2019re inspired because you create. <\/strong>Rather than waiting for inspiration to arise or for conditions to be perfect, simply do the work to allow inspiration the opportunity to arise. Plus, while working when you\u2019re not inspired can be challenging, Godin points to <\/strong>research showing that you\u2019re more likely to improve if a task is difficult for you.<\/strong> When you\u2019re trying to get better at something, you\u2019re necessarily going to feel incompetent before you get there. So while you\u2019re often going to feel incompetent while you\u2019re creating, if you don\u2019t challenge yourself, you can’t improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every time you do creative work, you\u2019re making something for the first time: You may have written songs before, but you\u2019ve never written this<\/em> particular song; you\u2019ve never painted this<\/em> painting or written this<\/em> story. And the only way to do something new, Godin says, is to be willing to fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyone who creates regularly has failed many times. Even successful directors make unsuccessful movies, and famous bands make bad songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Failure is the foundation of creative work. You fail, then you make changes and try again. As long as you don\u2019t stop, failure always leads to improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Godin maintains that \u201cwriter\u2019s block,\u201d or any kind of creative block<\/a>, isn\u2019t real. Rather, it\u2019s a story we tell ourselves. For example, we might think, \u201cI\u2019m not Toni Morrison (or Mick Jagger, Renoir, Beyonce, or any other iconic artist). I don\u2019t have the time, the talent, or the luxury to sit around and create art. I can\u2019t keep staring at this blank page, I have to do the laundry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We all have a story about who we are and what we are (or aren\u2019t) capable of. However, rather than accept the story you tell yourself at face value, you have to ask yourself two questions, says Godin. First, does the story accurately reflect reality? (Is there reason to expect that you would be as good as a Pulitzer prize-winning author when you\u2019re first starting out?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, is your story helping you achieve your goals<\/a>? (What matters more to you in the long run, the laundry or your long-neglected creative endeavor?) Godin claims that if the story you tell yourself isn\u2019t working for you, then you can change it.<\/strong> This is much easier than trying to change reality to fit your narrative. For example, you might tell yourself, \u201cI\u2019m still relatively new to this, and, like any other skill, I\u2019ll need to practice more before I learn how to do it well. If I invest a small amount of time every day, I\u2019ll learn to trust myself and I\u2019ll create something I\u2019m proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n One benefit of time management for creatives is that you\u2019re working every day and constantly moving forward, so it\u2019s harder to get \u201cblocked.\u201d You create regardless of whether you want to or not, and regardless of whether you’re inspired. It\u2019s better to create something that\u2019s not great and work to improve it than it is to say you\u2019re stuck and not create anything at all.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Very few people create brilliant work from the start, according to Godin. All work is bad at first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, sharing \u201cbad\u201d work or ideas is essential to creating good work.<\/strong> Sharing work that\u2019s not good shows you that you can survive it and learn from it. (\u201cGood\u201d is very hard to define in any event, says Godin. Many best-selling books and movies were rejected repeatedly before they found success.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n While you shouldn\u2019t give up on creative work just because of a temporary \u201cblock,\u201d or lack of creative time management there are times when giving up is appropriate. If you\u2019ve invested a lot of time and effort into something that\u2019s not working, you don\u2019t have to stick with it. According to Godin, feeling regret about sunk costs is better than sticking with something that isn\u2019t going anywhere. For example, if you\u2019ve revised a short story many times and you can\u2019t get it to where you want it, it\u2019s OK to abandon it and move on to something new. Maybe the story would make more sense as a novel (in which case, it wasn\u2019t a waste of time to consider some of the characters and plot points in a shorter draft).<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Shortform note: The pull to stick with something just because you\u2019ve invested time, effort, and money into it is well-documented in a variety of fields. For example, one 2018 study found that, given a chance to win money using either a solution they\u2019d developed or a solution with a higher probability of winning, the majority of participants chose the sunk-costs solution<\/a>. This was likely due to a psychological need to feel that their work hadn\u2019t been in vain, as well as a need to feel competent in their decision-making<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What is creative time management? How much time should you spend on a creative project? In The Practice, Seth Godin says that time management is extremely important for creative people. By setting aside a specific time of day for your project, obstacles won’t slow you down. Let’s look at creative time management in practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":68974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,42,43],"tags":[718],"class_list":["post-75724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-motivation","category-self-improvement","tag-the-practice","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nWork Consistently Despite Obstacles<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Inspiration Follows Work<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Failure Is Necessary to Succeed<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Creative “Blocks”<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Sunk Costs<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n