For someone quite artistic, I can be a little tyrant when I want to be. While on the outside, artists' lives may seem bohemian and laissez-faire, it actually takes a fair bit of rigor and scheduling to make sure you stay on track. It's popular concept in the world of creators and one I personally adhere to that if you wait for inspiration to strike and only work then, you'll be waiting a good long time.
You need a schedule, and more importantly, you need to keep yourself to it. I remember reading in one of Hemingway's books how he struggled to keep his life outside of writing to a minimum when working on a new project, and only allowed himself fishing in the early hours, then had to force himself into his writing hut the rest of the evening. But that's how the world got a bunch of great books. If Hemingway had said nah, don't feel like it, I'll just go round the pub, we might not have things like The Old Man and the Sea or For Whom the Bell Tolls to adorn our shelves.
Be that as it may, it's easy for someone like me to overstress the importance of rigor and routine to the point of, well, fascism really. I get very utilitarian if I'm not careful, and can get quite panicked and upset with myself when I deviate from my schedule or don't get X tasks done before Y hour in the day.
And much as a sense of routine is useful in a creator's life, I find it can be counterproductive, when taken to an extreme. Like, I'll stress myself that I haven't maybe posted on Hive or on Medium or completed the shopping or whatever needs doing. I am falling behind. I am not being productive.
It's a real phobia for me and, as I gather, an increasing problem for many in this productivity-obsessed generation.
I have to remind myself to deviate. Take a different route while outside. Try something new. See that even though it's three o'clock and so-and-so isn't done, I can just say fuck it.
This morning I had a wonderful yoga practice with a focus on releasing spinal tension. I tend to work a lot on hip area and am always pleasantly surprised to find that I generally don't experience a lot of emotion during those practices (even though we store a lot of emotion in hips). The back, however, when I worked it today, had this incredible release. Not of sadness or anything like that, but rather of rigidity. I realize I might've been holding myself up too narrow, too straight, which when we're being honest, isn't most conductive of creativity.
So my intention for this weekend is to flow. Hang loose. Because I tend to speed through whatever project I'm working on, and earlier, I asked myself "Well, what are you rushing towards? If you took it down at a third of this pace, you'd still be done before any imaginable deadline you could set yourself. So, what's the rush?".
And the truth is, I don't know. And until I know the answer, I plan on taking it loose. Slowing down. Changing lanes, and inviting a bit of fluidity into my rhythm.
What's your intention for this weekend?
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STOPEvery creator needs to have a routine which will help them to always be persistent since they know that time is basically fixed for creativity. Please, how is medium website? Is it also a very good one?