Dears,
It’s time to stop
blaming our surroundings and start taking responsibility. While no workplace is
perfect, it turns out that our gravest challenges are a lot more primal and
personal. Our individual practices ultimately determine what we do and how well
we do it. Specifically, it’s our routine (or lack thereof),
our capacity to work proactively rather than reactively, and our ability to
systematically optimize our work habits over time that determine our ability to
make ideas happen. Only by taking charge of your day-to-day can you truly make
an impact in what matters most to you. I urge you to build a better routine by
stepping outside of it, find your focus by rising above the constant cacophony,
and sharpen your creative prowess by analysing what really matters most when it
comes to making your ideas happen.
We tend to overestimate what we can do in a short
period, and underestimate what we can do over a long period, provided we work
slowly and consistently. A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat
the labours of a spasmodic Hercules. Over the long run, the unglamorous habit
of frequency fosters both productivity and creativity.
You’re much more likely to spot surprising
relationships and to see fresh connections among ideas, if your mind is constantly
humming with issues related to your work. When I’m deep in a project,
everything I experience seems to relate to it in a way that’s absolutely
exhilarating. The entire world becomes more interesting. That’s critical,
because I have a voracious need for material, and as I become hyper aware of
potential fodder, ideas pour in. By contrast, working sporadically makes it
hard to keep your focus. It’s easy to become blocked, confused, or distracted,
or to forget what you were aiming to accomplish.
Creativity arises from a constant churn of ideas,
and one of the easiest ways to encourage that fertile froth is to keep your
mind engaged with your project. When you work regularly, inspiration strikes
regularly.Step by step, you make your way forward. That’s why practices such as
daily writing exercises or keeping a daily blog can be so helpful. You see
yourself do the work, which shows you that you can do the work. Progress is
reassuring and inspiring; panic and then despair set in when you find yourself getting
nothing done day after day. One of the painful ironies of work life is that the
anxiety of procrastination often makes people even less likely to buckle down
in the future.
I’ve learned as I’ve grown up, such as: “It’s the
task that’s never started that’s more tiresome,” “The days are long, but the
years are short,” and “Always leave plenty of room in the suitcase.” One of my
most helpful Secrets is, “What I do every day matters more than what I do once
in a while.”Day by day, we build our lives, and day by day, we can take steps
toward making real the magnificent creations of our imaginations
Everybody who does creative work has figured out
how to deal with their own demons to get their work done. Tactics are
idiosyncratic. But strategies are universal, and there are a lot of talented
folks who are not succeeding the way they want to because their strategies are broken.
The strategy is simple, I think. The strategy is to have a practice, and what
it means to have a practice is to regularly and reliably do the work in a
habitual way. There are many ways you can signify to yourself that you are
doing your practice. The notion that I do my work here, now, like this, even
when I do not feel like it, and especially when I do not feel like it, is very
important. Because lots and lots of people are creative when they feel like it,
but you are only going to become a professional if you do it when you don’t
feel like it. And that emotional waiver is why this is your work and not your
hobby.
Manage Your Day-to-Day goes on to explore such
facets of the creative life as optimizing your idea-generation, defying the
demons of perfectionism, managing procrastination, and breaking through your
creative blocks, with insights from
magnificent minds
Happy New Year and Wishing you More & Most of Life
DC*
