Last week I mentioned that a few of my patients who are usually creatively fertile have, over the past few weeks, begun to slow down and stagnate. The summer doldrums, malaise, vacation, hiatus, 'pause that refreshes', whatever you want to call it, has continued this week and seems to be gathering steam. More and more people in my practice have been saying that tapping into their creative imperatives has become harder lately. What's so unusual about all of this is that most of these folks have actually had more free time available because of the end of the school year, summer hours, or changes in their workflow. So what gives? If these people suddenly have all of these big holes in their calendars why are they finding it so much harder to make the time to create?
Ironically, one of the reasons for the recent uptick in creative stagnation is actually because of the additional free time. If you have been waiting for a day off to begin your next screenplay, sculpture, or knitted blanket you are probably less likely to do it when you have a chunk of free time. As odd as it may seem, having more uncommitted time on your hands tends to make people less creatively productive. If you have large blocks of unscheduled hours on the horizon you may tell yourself that you will get everything done during that space and instinctively ignore the smaller windows of time in between appointments and you will end up filling up the downtime with errands instead of creative passions.
For example, lets say it's Monday and you know that you have a three-day weekend coming up, you will be more likely to procrastinate doing things that you want to do, such as creating, until that day off. However, you will also put off doing things that you "have" to do, such as grocery shopping, laundry, and fixing that broken shade so that you can stop using the beach towel from St. Bart's as a window treatment. What ends up happening is that the elusive chunks of time never materialize because they get taken up by chores or, more often, lame TV re-runs (this of course, excludes re-runs of 30 Rock). Thus, when you have more free time you get less done, which includes creating.
The solution to the creative slowdown is not having more time on your hands, but less: The busier you are, the more you value your time and the more you will try to wring every last second out of it. For any of you who live in a small apartment, this will make intuitive sense to you, as when you have very little space you tend to use it more efficiently, because, well, you have to. The same is true for time - the less of it you feel you have, the more creatively you will use it, and the more you can, and will use it create. Pressure is a virtue. Use it to manipulate yourself into getting things done. Schedule more activities during your workday. Plan out what you are hoping to accomplish during a given day - write it down and refer back to what you have written. Set aside time for creating by writing down what you want to make and when you want to make it. Fill in those holes in your schedule so you have less free time. You will find that you are more likely to get to the projects of personal expression that make life worth living and you may even get that shade fixed. Give it a try. Now get busy... creating.
