I’m late into the week – it’s not so much that I’m rushing – more that I’ve been so focused and productive over the last few months that I can feel my body and mind start to wane. And of course – I don’t have time for that – I need to keep going – preferably at the same pace as before and yet – I know it’s unsustainable, so what to do?
I think one of the tricks to being creative is to understand your personal rhythm and recognize that it is probably unlike anyone else’s. Oh sure we can read the “How to” blogs and sign up for the latest productivity podcast but these things paint in broad brush strokes and it’s in the details where things can go wrong.
The work day encourages a linear approach to output – that you show up for eight hours, deliver a consistent output, five days a week and do that ad-infinitum until you die. And for sure – this makes it easier for humans to work together in spaces where we’re mindlessly making things but it makes no sense at all when it comes to the creative act – and really – it makes no sense at all when you factor in people’s biorhythms and personal lives and – well – anything.
I know that I’m a bit manic – that I can operate at full tilt for months – but I also know that at some point, if I push it too far – I crash – and sometimes the crash can end up undoing a lot of what has been built in those super productive months. But here’s the danger! You tell many people about that kind of workflow and they’ll encourage you to smooth it out – to reduce the highs so you reduce the lows – that you should “flatten’ yourself to more reflect the norm in order to deliver a more consistent output.
There’s sense in that if you’re managing a team – when it comes to driving musicto I recognize that I need to be more stable as the ultimate output is a sum of the community’s total performance and the role I play is different from that of an individual contributor.
However – when I’m wearing my playlist curator hat – when I’m functioning in the role of creative writer – I don’t want that stability. I want the highs and lows – I’m happy to have months where my output is stellar and prepared to pay for that with a few weeks where I drop off and recuperate. I know that the sum of my output is far superior this way than if I “smoothed” it out and settled for mediocrity every day of the week.
This is a brilliant track from Tash Sultana – who if you haven’t heard of is a really rather brilliant Australian musician – I incubated and wrote this while having the track on repeat – and though I was feeling tired and drained – it delivered the perfect amount of acoustic energy to get me through. Definitely worth taking out for a spin.
You can learn more about Tash Sultana here: