Is Organization The Enemy For Creative Types?
The short answer to this tedious question is yes, no and within reason.
Creatives get the stereotype that they don’t conform to an organizational normative. Instead, they allegedly live in a chaotic organization, break away from rules and regulations, and do as they please at odd hours of the day and or night.
These stereotypes must first be identified as an actual creative and a day-dreamer. Day-dreamers are the individuals that seem to have many projects in the funnel yet never complete anything. This mindset can be exhausting because you feel as if you are working when in fact you are organizing a day-dream.
Once you’ve established your creative short-comings, you can address the issue at hand which is “why am I this way”?
1. Focus and Execute
In this day and age, talent is meaningless. There is an infinite number of talented writers, directors, cinematographers, and designers. You should be focusing on executing your vision. Less than 1% of these talented individuals have the discipline to focus and actually see their project through to the end.
You can improve this by managing your day-to-day schedule. Map out your time available in the day and how long certain tasks should take. By creating a schedule, you can monitor your time more efficiently.
We live in a hyper-distractive world and can never seem to have enough time in the world to complete daily tasks with our phones holding us hostage every waking second.
2. Deadline Free, Now What?
If you are free of deadlines, productive work can be difficult. You have all this free time to do everything but work until your next deadline. Don’t reward yourself with counter productivity.
If you have a list of projects in the funnel, start with the one you feel most inspired by. This will allow your creative juices to flow and trick your mind into thinking you aren’t working because let’s face it, being creative is fun!
3. Listen To Your Body
In a dog-eat-dog world, you have to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, right? Wrong.
Work smarter, not harder. When you’re on a roll, continue working until you’re uninspired and exhausted. In retrospect, if you have writers' block, take a break. Get some fresh air and revisit the task once you’ve allowed your mind to relax. Often times, people forget to take care of themselves which is crucial to providing excellent results. If you don’t feel well, it will show in your work.
Simply put, if you’re a creative, find your happy medium! Don’t ever put yourself in a box, but establish some form of organization.