Creativity and Productivity

[phantasm]

Okay, Nir asked me to create a new thread for this topic since it's so incredibly broad. So here's what this comes down to.


Lately I can't seem to get a firm grip on my creative life. Some of it is scheduling with work. That affects my schedule in the mornings, when I prefer to work. I like to get my work duties out of the way in the morning so I can have the rest of the day to myself, like going to college and having three classes before lunch on Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays. Problem is, my life doesn't always work that way due to how much help they need at work. I'm one of those people who prefers to have a regular work schedule.

So I have this  routine of doing certain creative things certain times of the day. On days I don't work, for example, mornings are when I edit the hell out of what I'm currently working on. I have enough days off that this is statistically significant.

This the breakdown of my day, when I can swing it:
* Get up, follow morning routine; if I don't have work that day, I take the opportunity to do a 3-hr writing session
* Do lunch and afterwards take care of real-world business-- bills, the occasional week day chores, errands. I often schedule some reading time as well,
fiction and nonfiction.
* After dinner, another 3-hr writing session
* Do a break, then a 1000-word free write session, usually takes around an hour, sometimes more... depends on the complexity of the idea I'm working with
* Go to bed, wake up, do it all again


So-- I have my creative routines and overall they serve me well. Even so, my instant gratification monkey doesn't always want to follow the schedule I lay out for myself. There are nights where I cut my creative work short, or even skip it entirely for a Star Trek marathon or movie night, or computer gaming or whatever.


So-- how do you guys get up on the horse, and then keep yourselves on the horse when you get derailed, especially when you're the one who got yourself derailed? Life issues is one thing. Dealing with an unexpected crisis and having to work with a bureaucracy to get the thing done. Or a family thing or whatever. Because, I am fully in charge of my life. No wife, no kids, no pet is depending on me. I can do whatever I want whenever I want. So why don't I want to do my writing more often?

[anirbas]

I feel like I lost a firm grip on my creative life nine years ago. When I started a full time job. I admire your ability to continue to get in as much writing time as you do, Phntsm. I know you have a job, too. And I assume it's full time.

If I'm to tired, I feel like I can't think coherently enough to write a decent poem. Wasn't it me, back in the day at Bnet that always said, "If it doesn't knock your own socks off, it won't de-sock anyone else, either."? Haha.

The Muse must not have gotten packed when I moved out here nine years ago and started over. (sigh)

[phantasm]

Actually, my financial situation is a a bit more complicated..... Way, way back I got diagnosed with "Asperger's Syndrome," which I've never fully accepted, but had the effect of helping me get on Social Security. I get enough from that to pay my rent and a few other things. But I also have to work part-time to plug the holes in my budget, S.S. doesn't quite cover everything. It's a situation that to be honest sucks. But I've never really been able to figure out how to disentangle myself from the Federal bureaucracy. I've been striving to rid myself of dysfunctional behavior I inherited from being raised by my parents, which probably gets filed under the so-called disability thing, which, if true, would infuriate me. There is a huge difference between having a significant mental problem and having had dysfunctional behavior foisted on you by the examples you grew up under. Not to say that latter can't fuel the former, and in fact may be the hidden cause of a lot of what we are currently classifying as mental disorders in our culture. I admit there's a blurry *boundary* between the two phenomena, but also a vital distinction between them.... anyway......

Big box retail as we know it is dying, which is where I have my job (in one of the big office supply stores). I work there part--time, anyway. Some days I work, some days I don't. It depends on the week and the time of year. That's just the nature of the beast.

What it comes down to is having large swaths of time I need to learn to manage more effectively...... a lot of people are pressed for time in our culture, me, I'm the opposite.
That's quite simply where I am in life................................