Comments on: Time, Creativity, and Metaprojects

By: Too Many Goals = Not Enough Focus = My Balls Are Dropping

Too Many Goals = Not Enough Focus = My Balls Are Dropping — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:31:34 +0000

[...] out on this line of thinking about creative projects is Charlie over at Productive Flourishing. This post in particular has some great ideas about how to (under)plan your day for maximum [...]

By: Charlie

Charlie — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:50:49 +0000

@Lisa: Self-management is critical – unfortunately it’s a hard skill to learn. And the after 8 thing is a relatively recent thing for me, too – and it’s frustrating realizing that I have to either make up for that time somewhere else or do less. But it’s the reality of the situation.

@Tzaddi: If the things you’re doing are productive, then, by all means, go for it. It’s what I do, too, although I sometimes wonder if my blog friends and email victims get the short end of the stick…

@Lisa: If you wake up in the morning and have to redo all the creative “progress” you made last night, then, yes, it’s time to rethink about when you’re planning your work. Maybe play Risk instead?

@Mike: I’ll have to run and check that book out – it’s what I’ve been saying for a while, just not very coherently or clearly. I wonder how differently we’d view things if we treated creativity and (mental) energy in the same way that we treated athletic skills and physical energy? Thanks for commenting!

By: Mike Stankavich

Mike Stankavich — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:54:22 +0000

Charlie, I have been calling my metaprojects initiatives, or sometimes major initiatives. It's not necessarily an ideal term either, but at least it serves as a reasonable term to differentiate the larger, proactive, long term type projects. And as you say, creative and psychic energy are critical to making progress on those initiatives to drive major change in your life. I really take your point about attempting to overload. Not only do you fail to complete that extra task, you compound the feeling of being overwhelmed and guilty because you broke a commitment to yourself. One book that I found to be useful is The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. The premise is that you should manage energy as well as time by balancing stress and recovery for mental and creative efforts as well as physical fitness for sports performance.

By: Sara at On Simplicity

Sara at On Simplicity — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:41:18 +0000

You nailed something that's been bugging me. I've got time in the evenings, but I never make much progress on creative projects. It may be time (or well past time) to rethink when I try to accomplish creative tasks. Sara at On Simplicitys last blog post..Three Experiences You'd Like to Have

By: Tzaddi

Tzaddi — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:23:30 +0000

Interesting concept. I've experienced beating myself up for doing things like catching up on RSS feeds or e-mails, when I "could" be moving projects forward. Often that's in the evening when I just don't have the brain for it. This gives me perspective on why I might be doing that. Thanks. Tzaddis last blog post..Friends in the City (Yay!)

By: Lisa

Lisa — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 02:00:39 +0000

We really have to step back and objectively "manage" ourselves from time to time to be able to perceive and adjust to these issues, don't we? What I've noticed recently is a change in my most creative hours. It's only recently become apparent to me that working on deadline after 8pm is no longer very productive (even though that used to be my most concentrated time). Replotting my entire day around not having that time slot is still difficult. Lisas last blog post..Stuck in the middle