Articles On Time Management/Procrastination

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Busy-ness as an Obstacle to Creativity

Just Start

10 Good Reasons Why You Should Procrastinate

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These articles may not be reproduced without including the following credit: copyright Gregory Huff. Please visit www.CreativeHelps.com for website links, helpful resources, and more articles designed to energize your creativity.

"Busy-ness as an Obstacle to Creativity"

by Gregory Huff

"Busy, busy, busy! No time for myself, let alone my creativity. I’ve got places to go, things to do, and demands to meet. I will get to my creativity someday, when I have time. Right now it isn’t a priority." Amazing, isn’t it? Then you wonder why you’re blocked and frustrated when the creative time finally comes.

But I must be candid with you: how much of your busy-ness is really legitimate? Do you use your busy-ness as an excuse not to commit to your creativity? Is your busy-ness a coping mechanism, to deal with a loss of meaning in your creativity? Is it fear that motivates you to stay busy, so you won’t have to confront the blank canvas, the bare page, the silent piano?

Poor excuses can develop into bad habits over time. For example: it just becomes convenient to tell friends you’re "fine" when they ask you how you’re doing. After all, who has time to build relationship anymore? Keep people at arm’s length, only to discover you actually do need help or someone to talk to eventually.

Perhaps you are using your busy-ness as a means to avoid your creativity. At first being busy really gets in the way of accomplishing your creative goal. But then you realize it becomes a way for you to escape the consequences of achieving your goal. What consequences? The questions that arise upon completion: "Ok, you’re done with your painting; now what? Another blank canvas to confront?" or "Alright, your magazine article is finished. What if it gets rejected?"

It is that fear that motivates you, compels you to remain ever busy, free of confrontation, rejection, and satisfaction.

You force your busyness to become meaningful, rather than finding meaning in your creativity. Or perhaps that was the problem in the first place: your creative project became meaningless. So your response was to substitute busy-ness in place of starting another creative project, since finding a new project may lead to another dead end. Plus the housework was piling up anyway.

Why couldn’t the solution be to find balance instead? Must it always be black or white? Why not pace yourself with baby steps through the process, rather than giving up completely? I know it’s scary to confront the blank canvas. Instead of seeing it as blank, envision that it is welcoming you to start the creative process. It is giving you the opportunity to explore, experiment, and play. It isn’t judging you; its accepting you, beckoning you to express yourself and giving you the freedom to make mistakes during the process. It has no expectation of you other than for you to be open to the opportunity to create.

Start making plans now to incorporate your creativity wherever you can into your schedule. It might mean using the s word – sacrifice – painful as it may be. But the TV can wait 15 or 30 minutes while you spend that time being creative. You’ll be glad you did.

Sometimes being creative for you will mean reading a book on the creative process, or taking a stroll in the park, or pausing for an extended affirmation break. These are needful things too and will contribute to your productivity in ways you can’t imagine right now, because you’re too busy.

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"Just Start"

by Gregory Huff

If you have ever had a hard, long look at yourself in the mirror, you probably came to a brutally honest conclusion: the mirror doesn’t lie. As much as you may want it to distort the truth, it does not. Confronted by this revelation, one may decide to change their appearance. But how long does that change last?

Recently I was watching a talk show that several years ago had given makeovers to a few people who had not been making the most of their appearance. Now the talk show was surprising these same people years later, to see if they had maintained their makeover. In fact, many had not. They had chosen to let themselves revert back to their old appearances. They were quite embarrassed and asked for a second makeover, with a promise to keep it up for good. The talk show granted their wish.

Are you like that? In a sense I have been holding a mirror up to your creativity through the ideas & suggestions offered in Creative Decisions Today. How well have you been maintaining the new path you have chosen for yourself? Do you absorb the suggestions or do they get filed in the "good intentions" folder?

It’s like someone who clips and files the "Helpful Household Hints" column from the newspaper, but never utilizes the hints when they are needed most. They are such wonderful hints too, meant to make your life easier or save you time. But they never become more than just good ideas.

I know how it is; I’m guilty too! Our kitchen has several cookbooks in it, but 90% of the time we wind up eating what we always eat. Why? Because cooking from a cookbook requires skill and attention to detail. Because our schedule doesn’t always allow the luxury of two hours to prepare a meal. Because we don’t feel like cleaning up the extra mess it may require. Because we didn’t read the recipe the day before only to discover something should have been marinating overnight. Because we don’t have all the ingredients beforehand. Because, because, because!

Well, guess what? This week I’m going to just start! I’m going to open one of those cookbooks and make a nice candlelight dinner for my wife and me.

I encourage you to do the same with your creativity: just start! Start with that on again off again creative project laying dormant in the corner. You know the one: the calls to the galleries you were going to make, the portfolio you started to put together, the neglected plans for a writer’s retreat, the artist’s statement left unfinished, the story that lost its way, the poem that needed editing, that freelance opportunity you never followed up on. Now you remember! Look at that creative project and remember what excuses paralyzed you from completing it. Write down those excuses… all of them. Then take that piece of paper and, with a deep breath, heave it into the trash can where it belongs! Say it: "I release myself from the excuses that have held me back!!" Give yourself permission to start the creative project, right now. Just start the project, one step at a time, without letting the big picture overwhelm you. You can do it! It doesn’t matter if you can only give it 10 minutes today, make it your most creative, free, fun, focused and productive ten minutes.

And the second an excuse comes to mind, nip it in the bud. Don’t let that seed of paralysis take root. Counter that that demon seed with an opposite affirmation, and keep on truckin’. For example: "You can’t do it!" "I am doing it, and I’m doing it with energy, excitement, and excellence!" You’ll be surprised at how all those helpful hints start becoming invigorating actions that jump start your creativity.

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"10 Good Reasons Why You Should Procrastinate"

by Gregory Huff

You estimate accurately the amount of time it takes to do a job – "Who cares if you have two months? It’ll only take 2 hours to do."

You have all the information you need, readily available, to complete the work at a moment’s notice – "Thanks to internet resources being available 24 hours a day, waiting until the last minute couldn’t be easier!"

You can blame someone else for the job not getting done on time – "If there wasn’t so much traffic and the lines weren’t so long, the work would’ve been done."

You know you won’t get a creative block whenever you finally get started – "My best ideas always come after deadline or at the eleventh hour."

You have an endless supply of money to pay for various last minute rush charges for creative services – "I support the arts. I pay rush fees at the print shop whenever possible."

You enjoy the attention, embarrassment, and anger of others – "If they didn’t get mad at me they wouldn’t notice me or my work at all."

You are a master at making excuses to justify the last minute – "I pride myself in making the right excuse at the right time."

You believe it really doesn’t take a lot of dedication and investment of time to get the job done with integrity and quality – "So many went to school for what I just naturally know how to do. I can’t lose."

You know it won’t show if you aren’t well prepared – "I can just throw it together. They’ll never know the difference and they’ll think it’s great anyway. They should be honored I’m doing it at all, and for so little pay too!"

By setting lower standards, you aren’t disappointed by the results – "Lower expectations = happier clients if it turns out better than I thought it would."

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