Do you ever feel like you get your best ideas at the most random or inconvenient times? Maybe in the shower, or stuck in traffic? Often I spend all day trying to come up with an idea for a song, and suddenly at midnight when I’m trying to get to sleep, I hear this brilliant melody idea and I’m faced with a choice: do I get out of bed and start tracking the idea in my little bedroom studio, go to sleep and hope I still remember it or go for somewhere in-between and just sing it into my phone with a weird half-asleep voice.
I shared this fun little comic by Illustrator Katherine Liu on my Instagram a while back, which I definitely related to. That feeling of being tired all day and then suddenly getting to the evening and wanting to do everything. It sparked a fun conversation with my friend Dylan about productivity and cultivating a good environment for ideas.
We both agreed that there is something about taking a break which seems to be a great idea-generator (a strong case for an afternoon nap, perhaps?). And even movement or travelling seems to be a great catalyst for moments of inspiration.
Could it be that true inspiration and creative ideas flow easiest in those moments of head space? The times our brains are not having to actively think about a particular task and are almost running in idle mode. It certainly seems that way!
Last week I was listening to an episode of the Creative Pep Talk, in which the host Andy shared this little nugget:
“Great creative work requires lots and lots of time. Lots of “wasted” time. In some ways, creativity is anti-productivity, because productivity is about how to not waste one second of your time, but the best creativity comes from killing time.”
This really stood out to me, because I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how I can be more productive, how I can use every minute of my day and maximise my time, which new productivity apps I can try out. There has been a message portrayed a lot, particularly through YouTube and Instagram of this culture of #hustle. Everyone wants to be seen as busy, as putting in work, of ‘grinding’ your way to achievements and success. YouTubers regularly posting Instagram stories of how late they stayed up to edit that new video, or their early morning alarm so they can ‘rise and grind’ (an actual quote I saw in a recent video.) It’s something I fall into easily, and quite often become a little bit work-a-holic.
But is that even a healthy way to work? Again, in my conversation with my friend Dylan he mentioned how Sweden have started to implement the 6 hour work day in public sectors, and actually seen a productivity increase. Apparently South Korea are starting to make it illegal for companies to send emails out after 5pm! People taking active steps to protect employees from burnout. But in the creative industry, and with self-employed / freelance artists especially, we often don’t have people telling us to take a break. We fall into the culture of the #hustle.
Last year in Set Sail we implemented what we call ‘admin day’. Every Monday we spend time to organise our workload, go through emails together and we just have a focussed day of getting through those admin jobs that need to be done. This year, we brought in another idea: creative day. Now, being a creative missions organisation you’d think every day would be creative, but the reality is we’re often juggling several tasks at once and as mentioned at the start, our creative moments often happen outside of our work time. Time we could be spending with family, resting etc. And so every Friday we have a day of purposefully unplanned time. Space to create, to be inspired, to visit a gallery, to learn a new skill, to write a song or just experiment with something. If it’s helpful to be in the office for that, then we can, but if we want to spend that day travelling or being at home, we can, whatever works. The point is, it’s an intentional day in our week free of pressure to churn out some deliverable content, free of any guilt or ideas of ‘should I be doing something productive?’. It’s an attempt to create space for ideas to flourish, to experiment, to be free to create. Do we get it right every time? No, probably not. Some days the admin spills into creative day, some days are admin days aren’t super productive, but it feels like an intentional step in a healthy direction.
Last Sunday I was sat in church and the preacher started to read from Psalm 127. And verse 2 really stood out to me.
“It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil, for he gives to his beloved sleep.”
I used to quote this verse as a joke to anyone that tried to wake me up early - a biblical case for having a lie-in. But this time I read it and saw the truth in it. The hustle culture is actually vanity. To work in anxious toil, to be burning myself out for something I think I’m working at and pulling together myself, is actually vanity. Rest is a gift from God. Sleep is a good thing, not wasted time. I genuinely used to think that if I could figure out a way to function without needing sleep, I’d be super productive! Without realising that it really is a gift. Idle time is not always wasted time. Allow yourself space to create. Be intentional about finding time for that, it might just be where your best ideas come from.
If you enjoyed this blog make sure you check out the Creative Pep Talk podcast, by Andy J Pizza.
