Thank you, Neera! Decision fatigue is real. I never understood how much energy it takes to make all the tiny decisions that life requires until I started reading about it a few years ago. I too, do better during an early-ish morning window and don't do well at all with huge blocks of uninterrupted time. I feel guilty when I waste it. Now I will look at it as filling my creative well.
I'm so glad you're letting go of the guilt around filling your creative well—it's absolutely essential for us as creators. No need to feel guilty for doing what fuels your work.
Great strategies Neera. For me it is more about painting than writing these days, but I find if I don’t get going in the morning I rarely get back to it in the afternoon, that is my reading time, but once I start to paint I go back and forward all day, I’m not one to spend hours at the table, I get bored which probably sounds weird, but there it is, my way of working.
Everybody has their own rhythms. And it changes with time to time. When I have a lot of time at hand, I waste a lot, get distracted and even get bored. But when I have little time, I am more focused and get a lot more done.
I love reading your posts which are so conversational—thoughts over coffee with friends. I'm a teacher by day and have somehow found myself writing and/or proofreading between 3 and 4:30 am. It gives me time to have coffee and let the thoughts come, or not. I find that my most creative thoughts often come in the shower and make sure that I write them down when I'm out. I also find inspiration when I am driving home from the grocery store. I don't know why, but somehow these times and places have provided an abundance of ideas for my new novel and marketing ideas for the recently finished first novel.
Ideas often come when our mind is idle but our body is engaged in mundane tasks. That’s why showers, doing the dishes, driving, and walking are such fertile ground for creativity—sleep too. The trick is to capture those ideas the moment they appear, because I forget most of them just seconds after they arrive.
Yes, the trick is in the capture of these ideas. Knowing this, I have begun to use tools for recall of them: notebooks and pencils, Notes on the phone, and recently—Meta glasses for hands free message recording. I'm finding the effort has been well worth the time because these ideas continue to prove to be some of the best. It's as if some force is sprinkling good ideas around like pixie dust, and it is our job to catch them if we can.
Thank you, Neera! Decision fatigue is real. I never understood how much energy it takes to make all the tiny decisions that life requires until I started reading about it a few years ago. I too, do better during an early-ish morning window and don't do well at all with huge blocks of uninterrupted time. I feel guilty when I waste it. Now I will look at it as filling my creative well.
I'm so glad you're letting go of the guilt around filling your creative well—it's absolutely essential for us as creators. No need to feel guilty for doing what fuels your work.
Great practical tips, Neera! I tend to find inspiration in the shower and then have to grab a towel and dash for biro and paper!
Ha Ha! I do the same. Imagine how we would look to those who don't understand the urgency.
These tips sound real and some quite familiar, Neera! It's important to use time efficiently but also to leave space to wander, mull or float!
Great strategies Neera. For me it is more about painting than writing these days, but I find if I don’t get going in the morning I rarely get back to it in the afternoon, that is my reading time, but once I start to paint I go back and forward all day, I’m not one to spend hours at the table, I get bored which probably sounds weird, but there it is, my way of working.
Everybody has their own rhythms. And it changes with time to time. When I have a lot of time at hand, I waste a lot, get distracted and even get bored. But when I have little time, I am more focused and get a lot more done.
This is excellent advice! It's a disciplined, yet forgiving approach. Thank you, Neera!
Thansk Cathy.
This is really inspiring, Neera. Thanks for sharing your experiences and for the motivation.
You're welcome Jane.
I love reading your posts which are so conversational—thoughts over coffee with friends. I'm a teacher by day and have somehow found myself writing and/or proofreading between 3 and 4:30 am. It gives me time to have coffee and let the thoughts come, or not. I find that my most creative thoughts often come in the shower and make sure that I write them down when I'm out. I also find inspiration when I am driving home from the grocery store. I don't know why, but somehow these times and places have provided an abundance of ideas for my new novel and marketing ideas for the recently finished first novel.
Ideas often come when our mind is idle but our body is engaged in mundane tasks. That’s why showers, doing the dishes, driving, and walking are such fertile ground for creativity—sleep too. The trick is to capture those ideas the moment they appear, because I forget most of them just seconds after they arrive.
Yes, the trick is in the capture of these ideas. Knowing this, I have begun to use tools for recall of them: notebooks and pencils, Notes on the phone, and recently—Meta glasses for hands free message recording. I'm finding the effort has been well worth the time because these ideas continue to prove to be some of the best. It's as if some force is sprinkling good ideas around like pixie dust, and it is our job to catch them if we can.