A Spoonful Of Heart-Pounding Panic
The echoing sound of a ticking clock is enough to leave any creative type straddling the line between genius and madness. Perhaps life was different for the Renaissance poets, painting flowers in sun-soaked fields, but for those of us busting our arses in the twenty-first century, creative work comes with deadlines.
But, is that a good thing? Can you really schedule top-notch creative work and be inspired with a d-day looming overhead?
Some Things Never Change: Parkinson's Law
Ever have one of those surreal out-of-body experiences where you are sitting in an office and suddenly wonder: what the hell are these people up to? How is there really eight hours worth of work to be done, day in and day out?
Well, if you’ve heard of Parkinson's law, you already know the answer. Way back in 1955, British scholar C. Northcote Parkinson penned an iconic essay in The Economist. After watching companies getting too bloated to move and government workers rendered motionless by seas of red tape, he had an epiphany. "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion,” he said.
In other words, give ‘em a shoe to tie and they can spend a month on it if you say that’s how long it takes.
As humans, we aren’t conditioned to get shit done and out of the way. Instead, we work to timing. Tim Ferriss, famous for his Four-Hour Work Week, expanded on this idea. Basically, if you’re dreaming of working fewer hours, schedule fewer hours. Easy, right?
For the Birds
For those of us who grew up with granddads who walked uphill both ways every day of the week, this all feels a bit like modern laziness. And maybe it is a bit, but it’s also universal.
In fact, even birds do it. Renowned behaviourist B. F. Skinner found this exact same modus operandi in pigeons back in the 1930s. He taught the birds that they would get a reward if they pecked away at a key. The bird would peck like mad when their payday was on the horizon. After they got that sweet seed though, it was another story. The birds barely flapped a feather until they knew their jackpot was once again on its way. Even those oh-so-humble sky rats knew that there’s no point in knocking yourself out until you really need to.
Actual Deadlines, Not Micromanagement
Whether you spend your days feeding pigeons in the park or working with a team of humans, it’s worth thinking about procrastination’s powerful pull.
How do you actually manage work that doesn’t just ricochet between last-minute all-nighters and this-is-a-problem-for-future-me laziness? Well, if you’ve got a team to think about, give them a reason to be invested in the deadline. Don’t just have birdseed drop from the sky at randomly scheduled times.
According to research from Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile, creativity flourishes and people manage their time well if they have a common-sense deadline.
In Amabile’s study, creatives thrived when “they absolutely understood the need for the time pressure like a competitor was about to come out with a product just like theirs and they had to get there first or there was a desperate customer in need, there’s a desperate societal need in some cases.”
Creativity on Demand
As any creative will tell you, brilliant ideas don’t always keep office hours. You can stare at a blank screen for hours then have a breakthrough the second you get shampoo in your hair.
And that leaves a lot of would-be creative genius with just the wrong idea.
While those breakthrough ideas are essential, so is that time staring at a blank screen. Getting those rubbish ideas down on paper and out of your brain can actually help you find that shiny needle in a haystack.
If you simply wait for creative genius to strike you, you might just end up watching the world pass you by.
Inspiration is for Amateurs
Inside the Painter’s Studio featured a couple of dozen conversations with today’s top contemporary artists. In what might come as a surprise, a lot of these artists keep a pretty standard office schedule. “Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work,” Chuck Close said.
While we’ve talked about the value of ditching the 9-5, there is much to be said for logging the hours. Somewhere between a four-hour workweek and the red-faced sweaty boss who fires you for showing up at 9:01, there’s a sweet spot.
Your Regularly Scheduled Nervous Breakdown
After years in the business, our Design-Hungry team has learnt there definitely is such a thing as a “healthy” amount of panic. In fact, we’ve found that adding just the perfect spoonful of heart-pounding panic pushes our creative minds into overdrive.
We’ve got to know that our next handful of birdseed is right around the corner. Without the milestone on the horizon, it’s all too easy to work in circles. When you’ve got all the time in the world, the urgency is gone and the goal fades into the background.
While you absolutely don’t want to be slapping something together as it flies out the door, we find that having that urgency is truly motivating. Pushing to meet a deadline creates a panic that forces you to shove out every single idea that you can possibly conjure up. Having that level of anxiety motivates you to second guess every detail and pour over it with a fine-tooth comb. The result?
Creative genius that’s been carefully edited.
