How to Not Always Be Working: A Toolkit for Creativity and Radical Self-Care
I held on to my day jobs for so long because I wanted to keep my creativity free and safe. I maintained alternative streams of income so that, when my inspiration wasn’t flowing, I could say to it reassuringly, “No worries, mate. Just take your time. I’m here whenever you’re ready.” I was always willing to work hard so that my creativity could play
... See moreElizabeth Gilbert • Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
the reality is that most of us just don’t have the flexibility in our lives to be able to walk away from our work for a full year. Thankfully, we can all take practical sabbaticals—daily, weekly, or monthly breaks where we walk away from our work completely. Writer Gina Trapani has pointed out three prime spots to turn off our brains and take a bre
... See moreAustin Kleon • Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered (Austin Kleon)
Abel saw that her only viable option was to claim time instead—to just start drawing, for an hour or two, every day, and to accept the consequences, even if those included neglecting other activities she sincerely valued. “If you don’t save a bit of your time for you, now, out of every week,” as she puts it, “there is no moment in the future when y
... See moreOliver Burkeman • Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
The first suggestion is simple to implement: apply the heuristic of reducing whatever task list you come up with for a given day by somewhere between 25 and 50 percent. As mentioned, humans are wildly optimistic when we estimate how much time is needed to complete cognitive efforts. Blanket reduction rules, like cutting your initial task list by a
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