MY PRODUCTIVITY HACKS, PART FOUR: REST AND RESET by Max Jason Peterson

Eliot Knows by Max Jason Peterson

Rest and Reset 

Focus is one of the most deeply needed tools of a creative, and one that, along with time, can be the hardest to find. 

There's an old joke about the writer who sits down to work only to hop up again with a sudden passion for washing the dishes or changing the car’s oil. But it's not entirely off-base. Creative work is intense. It requires a lot of energy. When people talk about the discipline needed to follow through on creative pursuits, part of what they're talking about is focus: the ability to concentrate for periods of time long enough to make progress.

“Periods of time long enough to make progress,” of course, can be any amount of time in which you focus on your creative goal; leaving aside the dangers of rabbit holes, progress does include time spent searching for art references or studying an art technique you need to learn, or pursuing a small point of fact for a mystery or doing a deep-dive brainstorming session for your character’s personal habits. And the amount of time doesn’t matter—it could be a scene or plot notes you voice-typed into your phone while waiting in line at a drive-through. And make no mistake: even if you throw out all the words you wrote or erase what you drew, you’re still making progress: you’re exploring your way and getting closer to creating something that works for you.

Making art of any kind is hard but good work. It’s work that requires energy and thought and deep focus. It can take a lot out of you, but if making art is your dream, it can leave you satisfied in a way few other things do. So it’s worth finding ways to work with our own brains better to let that focus happen.

The reason I position focus as a resource even scarcer than time is simple: If you have focus, even five minutes will help you. But without the ability to focus, you may find yourself too weary to even take the time to write.

Distractions are the enemies of focus—especially the ones that you let get to you enough that you switch tasks, even if just for a moment.

A lack of focus can create a feedback loop. When you keep starting and stopping (even if it’s just to check your email or socials), your brain gets frustrated and you probably won’t get as much done as you could. (Focusing for a shorter time and then choosing to take a small break as a reward is different than letting the “breaks” interrupt the work, especially anytime you hit a stumbling block.)

Think of focus like sleep: it’s a different mental state, and it takes a little time to sink into it. With sleep, every interruption—especially frequent ones—makes it harder to fall back to sleep; even if you do, it might not be the deep sleep you need, leaving you feeling tired.

Maybe it’s hard to turn off the distractions in part because deep focus can make us “forget” the outside world for a time. Maybe that feels scary or dangerous. Maybe it makes us feel guilty or selfish. A lot of us have many responsibilities and challenges. You know what your priorities need to be. But remember that it’s also valid to take time for yourself to be creative, especially because if that’s your passion, it can improve your quality of life to do so.

Rest and taking care of your physical, emotional, and mental health are very important. Feeling creatively exhausted may have a root in actual physical exhaustion or other health needs. Personal or health needs or challenges affect us in different ways; is there a way to work with or take care of your needs that might improve things even a little bit, whatever your situation is? (For example, I have insomnia. As an overbooked person, it’s hard to allow myself the extra time I need to allow for not sleeping well, in order to get enough rest. But paradoxically, I create better even in more limited time when I do so. It also makes it more important to say “no” where needed.) 

So, yes, rest of all kinds (even from working on creative projects!) is important to recharge the energy you need to make things.

Sometimes I find that taking a break from things that weigh on me can help me rest and reset my brain, allowing me to focus better when I work. I call this “reset” because I’m giving my brain a chance to stand down from all the things I anxiously think about and distract myself with, by setting boundaries and sticking to them. Whether for a day or three, I tell myself, “You don’t have to do that now. It’s okay. You can think about it tomorrow.” This helps me clear my mind. It’s a sort of mental freedom. 

It sounds contrary, doesn't it? "I don't feel I can break away from these tasks long enough to achieve deep focus. Therefore I'm going to stop doing the tasks and focus instead." But even if you only have an hour to push them back--try to give yourself permission to stop thinking about them for that hour. For myself, I find such a "vacation" from my daily mental burdens helps give me more bandwidth to dive into a creative project, or simply to let myself relax long enough to relieve some of the stress blocking me. 

Even if I don’t write or make art during that time, my "worries" are suspended long enough for my brain to settle down, reset, and clear some space to focus. (If your life concerns are too big to pause for a day or an hour—please take care of those first; you can give yourself a small vacation from them when they are not as pressing. But remember that taking breaks for yourself is also important to avoid burnout.)

Even if none of this works for you—thinking about what happens to stop, distract, or dissuade you from creating may lead to some solutions. Regardless of whether you create anything, getting more rest and finding ways to reset your brain (so you don’t keep distracting yourself) will probably help you feel better in the long run, and maybe even get more done.

In other words—taking time out to snuggle with kitties or read a book are important part of the creative process!

Earlier works in this series:

Part One: Multiple WIPs

Part Two: These Are Our Tools 

Part Three: Wake Up to Something You Love

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For more information about Max Jason Peterson (he/they), visit maxjasonpeterson.wordpress.com or the Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram links through gardnercastle.com.

 

MY PRODUCTIVITY HACKS, PART THREE: WAKE UP TO SOMETHING YOU LOVE by Max Jason Peterson

Snow Kitty by Max Jason Peterson

Earlier works in this series:

Part One: Multiple WIPs

Part Two: These Are Our Tools 

Wake Up to Something You Love

If the thought of getting out of bed is a chore, the rest of the day often drags, too. Everything you have to do feels harder when you're thwarted by not having enough time to do something you love. 

I'm speaking, for my part, of creative work, but this could apply to many different activities.

I’ve recently returned to something I tried years before: getting up before I have to go to work. This is a true challenge, since I’m a night owl with a morning lark's work schedule. When I’ve tried to do it in the past, my resolution didn't last long, since it was hard to motivate myself to crawl out of bed early just to do some really hard work writing and editing on my computer with an aim to churn out as many words or pages as I could. 

Yet there have been two times when this strategy did work for me, and I honestly enjoyed it. The first occurred a few years ago, while I was drafting a fantasy novel. I'd wake up but still lie comfortably in bed, writing with colorful pens in a rainbow-edged journal (my favorite way to write being by hand, especially with fun materials). 

The other time is now: pure joy, to get up before work just to draw, because I love it.

I’ve really missed my art; I'd been away from it for too long, and it's thrilling to watch my skills return. But these mornings aren’t about making up for lost time. And yes, I do have paying art assignments, but these are just pieces I'm making for the love of it. 

Having gotten out of bed because I want to, I find my mind clear, my heart relaxed as I pick up the pencil. It's fun, not a chore. Not something I'm making myself do. Every morning I give myself the choice: sleep in? Draw? I try to sleep in. I end up drawing.

And it brightens my whole day.

Try it! Get up just a little bit early to do something creative that you love, in a way that is all about you and your enjoyment of the process. It may contribute to an overall goal (my drawings will be published online eventually), but the point isn’t the progress, it’s the process. It’s a way to say yes to a deeply held dream. To get in touch with your soul while you’re still so close to your unconscious, and not yet bowed down by the pressures of the day.

Often by the end of a long day at work, I’m too tired to create—because making things from the heart requires so much mental and emotional energy. Even if I had the will to do it, I might knuckle under the stress that accumulates with all I have yet to do, with not enough time to do it. I may feel I don’t have time to play. If I engage with my creative life, it has to be solely for professional work. And in order to justify taking time to do it, I need to work hard and make it count.

This is no fun. It's a quick way to burn out. Believe me, I've been there.

When I wake up and choose to climb out of bed, I feel joy as I rise to meet my art. Obviously that pleasure, doing something I love, is both the benefit and the motivation. But I think it runs deeper than that. I'm making time for my dream first. And that’s important. 

Not only is the mind clearer, the energy fresher before you begin your daily routines, but you'll also be showing yourself that you do take your dreams seriously—that you value yourself enough to make this thing you love a priority.

Maybe the amount of time you have is small—fifteen or twenty minutes. Maybe it’s closer to an hour. Either way, just putting in the time reinforces the sense of commitment. 

Meanwhile, you'll also improve your skills and your connection to your art. Even if you find that you have to keep erasing your subject’s face (or crossing out lines of a poem), the longer you spend looking at the picture you’re drawing, the more deeply you’ll see it, and the closer you’ll be to getting it to look the way you want. 

Incremental progress only looks slow on the surface. Turn off the part of your brain that counts up what you've done and searches for an end in sight. Focus on the process, the fact that this is what you want to be doing day by day. Slowly but surely, you’re getting there. One morning you’ll find you’ve completed a striking drawing or a sonnet full of insight. And it doesn’t feel like an insurmountable effort. You were just having fun, giving yourself a moment of joy by spending time doing something you love.