timer
What would you do if time were limitless?
It fascinates me to consider what I could accomplish if time were more malleable – if it could be stretched to accommodate my wildest dreams. If time were limitless, we wouldn’t have to make so many difficult choices – we could be less responsible and more free-wheeling. This is a very appealing notion…plenty of time to write that short story without feeling like I’m shirking some duty (more laundry? How can that be?)
But being forced to decide how to spend our time makes every choice more meaningful, and every creative success more valuable. How much more impressive is the art created against daunting circumstances? I admire the writer who perseveres to write a book by writing for thirty minutes every morning for ten years! To have that kind of discipline may be somewhat counter to the creative mind; after all, creativity is born of letting your mind play without bounds. And yet all the creativity in the world will do you no good if it stays in your head. So the lesson to be learned is to give yourself permission to be creative and build into your life these opportunities for unfettered creativity – even if the opportunity must be scheduled.
Thus, as someone who craves the thrill of an interesting project – a story to write, a picture to paint, a photograph to create, a conversation to savor – I have had to develop structure to give myself pockets of time to indulge my creative desires. In many ways, truly having the creative oasis is my grail quest.
And on that quest, I have found some of David Allen’s Getting Things Done concepts to have really improved my life and my opportunities to be creative. I am a big fan and have adapted his basics to suit my style. And the one little tool that helps make the system work and keep time from running me over:
A timer. Yes, the basic egg timer works in a pinch, but my preferred timer is the one on my wristwatch. Between the timer and the alarm on my wristwatch (your basic Timex sportswatch), I can keep a handle on the minutes I spend engaged in one task or another. I can limit myself – spend 1 hour on this task and then move on to the next. Sometimes I find myself reluctant to live by the time limit – sometimes one hour flies by and you’re just in the meat of the project, and then comes the decision-making: can I shuffle the rest of my life to keep going, or can I keep to my schedule and move on to my next obligation? There’s the rub – it is the challenge for the creative mind to be free and unbridled and to still be effective. As long as time remains linear, this will be a balancing act.
Did Einstein or Hemingway or Seurat have limits on their creativity? Of course they did; everyone has limits of one kind or another. You could argue that all of them lived in simpler times, (they didn’t have cell phones to distract or simplify; they likely traveled by train or car, not plane…) so did they have more limits — or less? Maybe we should look at J.K. Rowling or Chuck Close or more contemporary examples and analyze how they overcame the limits. Perhaps in a future post… But the point is, all of these highly creative people likely crossed these boundaries by making their creativity a priority. Who was creative but neglected their laundry? Who lived a full life and still was a creative success? Who was a creative success at the expense of their relationships? In the end, it all comes down to how we manage our time and what we choose to make a priority.
Without a time machine, we must face the reality that time is not limitless. We must spend each moment well and give ourselves the freedom to contribute to the world. How will you spend your time, and what will you accomplish?
