Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time: Troubleshoot Procrastination and Perfectionism In The Creative Process
For the past few months, I’ve been contemplating various approaches to help overcome procrastination and perfectionism in the creative process.
These symptoms of “self-sabotage” can become crippling, creating a vicious cycle of chaos and destruction amid our creative process. Which in turn can lead to feelings of stress, burnout, and dissatisfaction with our work.
A general feature I found that helped with this challenge is to manage your energy and not your time. This concept, popularised by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz in their book
The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal emphasises the importance of maintaining a balance between stress and recovery to optimise our performance and creativity. Even though the book was written in 2005, it’s still very relevant to the busy lifestyle we occupy today.
To be fully engaged, we must be physically energised, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond our immediate self-interest.
Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz
I’ve come to realise that procrastination and perfectionism are not the enemy. When managed properly they are essential components to the creative process. I intended to start writing this blog at 11 am on a Friday, and now it’s 4 pm. But both procrastination and perfectionism sneakily crept in, sabotaging my good intentions. How many times has this happened to you? You set out committed to the task ahead but fail. The funny thing is, I’m looking forward to writing this blog as I’ve decided it will be a short one, compared to the long essays I’ve been writing. So why was I falling into this whirlpool of disruption?
What I noticed was “anxiety” had kicked in, from procrastinating, telling me that my concept was not “perfect” and I needed to “research” further. As I was researching I came across a Harvard Business Review article Procrastination Is Essential to Innovation by Whitney Johnson. In this article, she claims that “anxiety caused by procrastination is actually a critical component to innovation. Anxiety, in the right quantities, can propel us forward.”
As the deadline for writing this essay neared, I analysed myself and my creative process. What became apparent was that the key to managing energy for creativity lies in embracing:
Slow Creativity: This approach emphasises the importance of allowing your creative ideas to unfold at their own pace. I thought that I was ready to start writing, but I quickly realised that I needed to let go of the to-do list filled with stuff that I hadn't achieved that week. My “good intentions” were squashed by the need to allow ideas to simmer and develop, rather than rush to produce something quickly. In my blog The Art of Slow Living: Tap Into Your Creative Potential I say that “creativity is a marathon, not a sprint” But maybe sometimes, it's a series of sprints. It’s about breaking free from autopilot and becoming more self-aware so that we can make deliberate intentional choices. Adopting a slow living approach to writing this essay, helped me to become more present and dedicate the appropriate time to something important to me. Honouring my energy input was a valuable lesson.
Embodied Creativity: You can’t be creative without being in your body, and having a vastly discordant to-do list was keeping me in my anxious mind. After killing the to-do list and researching a little further I could sense that my nervous system was still quietly strumming to an uptight tune. To stop me from going down the rabbit hole of research I grounded myself with breathwork and meditation followed by an intuitive play practice. You can read all about the benefits of these in my blog The Energetics of Creative Flow: Taming the Originality Monster. Intuitive play in the form of expressive mark-making is a method I use to switch between tasks. In this case from creative thinking to creative writing. If you’re interested in trying this out, you can join Enchant for an embodied meditation followed by a creative practice that helps you become more connected with your body to abstractly express the language of your emotions. Embodied Creativity is a bridge towards inspiration for me.
Cyclic Creativity: I’ve found that embracing the natural rhythms of nature and embodying the moon cycle has helped me cultivate a deeper connection to my creativity. It allows for continuous creative flow. As I write this essay, we’re in the Waning Moon phase, a time of innovation and a time to follow the natural instincts and curiosities that spark your wonder. Multi-tasking is a challenge. Applying the energetics of the moon phases is something I share and teach in Sonic, a five-week shamanic journey to activate your creative flow. You can read about all the moon phases in my blog Cycle of Creativity: The Moon Squashing the Voice of Self-Sabotage where I also share how creative flow is a state of being fully immersed and completely focused on a creative task or project. It’s typically characterised by a feeling of energised focus, full involvement, plus enjoyment in the process of creativity. Which is exactly what I embraced and embodied to write this essay.
This musing is still a bit longer than what I had planned. It’s taken more time to create and produce than I had planned and it’s taken a completely different turn to what I had planned. This is what surrendering to the creative process is. One that makes you feel fully energised, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned. One where perfection does not have a place at the table. Adopting a mantra that ‘close enough is good enough’, especially if your creative essence is speaking.
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