Creativity and Productivity

Hey there, Writer—

ON CREATIVITY

“Ask yourself in the most silent hour of the night: Must I write?” ~Rilke

The “silent hour” behaves unpredictably for me. If I’ve suffered from a lack of sleep, or if I’ve allowed old stories to rise up and whittle into my brain, then the silent hour is damaging. Must I write? is equivalent to Must I burn myself alive?

But the “silent hour” can also be illuminating and revitalizing, and I can easily answer the question, Must I write?, with a confection of magic and intention.

Those agonizing silent hours could be seen as a test of my faith in my Muse. Or they could be seen as a reminder that if I’ve lasted this long, then that means there are things left unwritten that must be freed upon the page. It’s not a question of when, or how, but a question of why.

Because I must write.

ON PRODUCTIVITY

What do you do with gifted time? Would you even know if time was gifted to you? If you get extra time to do something you really want to do, do you ever look at it as time that you made?

While it’s important to be really clear on the things we want, we have to also not limit ourselves in how those things come into our lives.

When we say we want more time to write, often we have a specific idea in our heads of what that might look like. And then when it doesn’t show up in the precise way we imagined, we think we didn’t get the extra time. But, interestingly enough, more often than not, you did get the extra time—but it showed up in your life in a way you didn’t expect.

So you missed it.

Why am I bringing this up? Well, March is a really awesome time to do a goal assessment. You can take some time to examine the past two months to see if you’ve been gifted any opportunities of time that you neglected to take advantage of. (Time isn’t the only factor when it comes to achieving goals, but it’s a biggie.)

If you realize, that wow, yeah, there were instances where you had extra time or extra opportunities that you never capitalized on—then now is the time to figure out a better system for yourself so you can make the most of 2021.

Be clear with your WHY. Be flexible with your HOW. Your year isn’t shot if you’ve fallen off your game.

• Take the opportunity now to make sure you still desperately want to accomplish those goals that you’d set back in January.

• Get clear on WHY you want to accomplish them.

• Set a monthly schedule of smaller goals that will lead you to those big goals. (I say monthly, but do what works for you. Some people prefer quarterly, others weekly, still others a combo of all three).

• Track your goals every week and journal your progress.

• Have a plan of action in place for when unexpected opportunities (such as gifted time) come into your life.