The Creative Myth
The Creative Myth
Scheduling and Creativity - Worth it's Weight in Time?
In this episode of the Creative Myth, we discuss the powerful and sometimes maligned creative tool of scheduling and its ability to enhance your creative thinking. We talk about how we utilise scheduling tools as creatives and entrepreneurs to bolster our creative endeavours. That is, if one of us can bring our selves to trust in the process!
Hello you beautiful people and welcome to the creative myth, the podcast that attempts to inspire the uninspired by unfolding breaking down and distilling that mythical force of nature and or nurture. They call creativity. Our goal to bust the myth that creativity is only the birthright of the future. And each bi weekly episode, we find a new and engaging self confessed creative and strike up a dialogue. Otherwise, Sasha and I sit down to discuss a topic that's got something to do with creativity, and how it relates to us and our role as artists, nomads and parents, we aim to find out just what creativity means, how it can be channeled into your passions and where exactly you might find it. But who is we we is certain a Singh and Benjamin lane wife and husband, Indian and Kiwi adventure photographers, international travelers and curious minds. You may know us as nomadic lovers of adventure tinted photography, and if not, you can follow our adventures on Instagram at Tinder photography on our website, tenant photography.com. And you can check out our exploits and find some top tips for photographers and small business owners on our YouTube channel. Today, on the creative myth, citizen an eye catching up to discuss something that can at times feel like a blessing and a curse to our creative lives, but nonetheless is valuable and a powerful tool for all creatives. We're talking of course, about the power of schedules and how you might use them to open up the time you need to live your creative life to its fullest. So, let's get started.
Sirjana Singh:Hello, creative people. Hello.
Ben Lane:We are surgenor and been coming at you.
Sirjana Singh:Yep. And late. We are coming late. Finally we've made it we're back. No one has been kicking up a storm in our lives. And recently at 11 weeks he has begun the process of dealing man this is tedious this teething thing. It's heartbreaking What's so hard to watch him. Now he locks his eyes with us. And if one of us is not giving him what he wants, he will lock the lock his eyes with the other one and and cry.
Unknown:And it sucks because there's nothing you can do. No,
Sirjana Singh:no. But we went on Instagram on Instagram stories and told all these beautiful people who follow us there our plight and by morning we had so many suggestions on what we should be doing. Yeah. And the thing that came through is something called teething tamer.
Unknown:Yeah. Oh man. This stuff seems like the miracle cure.
Sirjana Singh:Yeah, we this is not an advertisement for but we're not being paid for this content. But it's it's magic. Yeah,
Unknown:we were lucky enough. We bought a little teething thing. And we came with like a tiny little tube of like, be something you know, the trial tube.
Sirjana Singh:Yeah, the sample pot. Yeah.
Unknown:And luckily, that's going to tide us over. We've just ordered a massive jar of this stuff. So it appears to be working really well.
Sirjana Singh:Maybe it works on adults as well.
Unknown:It does apparently use it for wisdom teeth. This is turning faster.
Sirjana Singh:They may have not come to our podcast studio at all. For weeks now
Unknown:does suck a little bit because we now have a podcast studio. Right? Yeah, that is. Normally we end up spending an hour or two sitting up the whole place. But yeah, we've we've converted part of the garage into a studio.
Sirjana Singh:And now I just put my heat asleep. And we are here in like five minutes.
Ben Lane:And we decided to to do this topic today. What was our topic?
Sirjana Singh:It's schedules and creativity schedules
Unknown:and creativity because we are so late to the game this time.
Sirjana Singh:Yeah, clearly, we hadn't made any schedules for the coming weeks, because we were so wrapped in whatever we were doing. And clearly we dropped the ball.
Unknown:So before that Omar he came along we well one of us was definitely better with time management. I'm not gonna sit here and claim that I'm some guru, who knows everything about timetables and scheduling and time management and being awesome at it. Because basically, I've spent the entirety of my creative life trying to ignore it. But today, we're here to discuss the benefits of having a schedule, creative life.
Sirjana Singh:Well, I'm also not going to claim that I'm a guru, but I have been making schedules all my life. And when I was younger, they would give me calm and peace as the exams would come near. And I could put in my schedule, what I would be studying when and how I would be preparing for them, and immediately all the stress would just melt away. And then in my college life, it awarded me time to read books and pursue other hobbies. And then when I came to New Zealand, it gave me time to pursue jobs. Make me people learn new skills like cooking, and basically organize my life. So I could not be bogged down by constantly working as most overseas students are when they come to a country or anybody who comes to our country for the first time from from their homeland, just
Unknown:because you try to fit in trying to make sure that your knowledge to know the work you're doing.
Sirjana Singh:Yes. So you know, I was not always studying and not always reading and not always just sitting in my room because I had a schedule. I could, you know, pay. Yeah, I could pay awesome and also get A's. So schedules. You know how I got A's in university? Yeah,
Unknown:I literally slipped underneath the table in, in the computer lab, I dragged a mattress in there and spent, I don't know, the last four weeks of my honors doing an entire year's worth of stuff. So
Sirjana Singh:it was that's a different episode because it will be an episode about procrastination.
Unknown:Well, we can definitely get to that because you're talking to a actual procrastination guru, right.
Sirjana Singh:And the other reason I became very well versed with making schedules, for different occasions, and for different personality types is like Ben said, I now married someone who is averse to schedules, like vampires are averse to garlic or sunlight. Like, wow, he would hear something, I would read him something about how beneficial schedules are. And he would be completely on board and say, Oh, my gosh, yes, I want to try that. And come next morning. And he would go.
Unknown:Yeah. So I mean, we're putting this out there. Because we know if you're listening to this, you're likely have a creative bent. And there's a good possibility that you don't really enjoy the whole idea of scheduling. But yeah, since we started, like thinking about this topic, we've been researching a little bit, and there's been some really interesting stuff come up and some really big, creative hitters who swear by it. Yeah, yeah.
Sirjana Singh:And so you either what Ben is trying to say is off the camp, that schedules are everything, or you go. As you guys can see your face. It's there like a vampire, or a cat. So I'm a massive proponent of intentionally creating schedules, routines and rituals to cultivate the life you want. And there's no more fulfilling act of self love, an act of self love that keeps giving and nurturing your soul than taking out time to figure out how you want to spend your time.
Unknown:thoughts. Well, I mean, I can sit here and tell you that I think what you just said is Sage, I think that it's amazing. And I absolutely absolutely agree that like it is an act of self love to have that control. Personally, I sit there and feel guilty as a procrastinator, knowing that I could be doing this and that I don't. And I'm sure that I'm not the only one out here. Who has that.
Sirjana Singh:We should also mention that it's not just procrastination. It's ADHD as well.
Unknown:That's true. Okay, so when I was 31, I was diagnosed with ADHD. All of a sudden, a lot of things started to make sense in my life. Yeah. So we've been struggling with that as like a massive learning curve, too, because I've spent 30 years of my life, learning to do things a particular way and not knowing why.
Sirjana Singh:And it's fascinating. Since when you found out that that's, this exists between us. There has been there a surgeon and then there is ADHD between us. And we've been trying to read more about brain and how it works. It's fascinating. But yeah, no, that was Yeah, going off the topic. I learned about the importance of making timetable very early on, as I mentioned, and it was
Unknown:definitely a nail in the coffin for you, when you discovered that you could actually help me out by doing such. Yeah, doing it for me as well. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that was proof of concept for you.
Sirjana Singh:Oh, right. I did not understand that expression of the coffee again, back to vampire, right again. Yeah. So I use them religiously before exams to calm myself down, as I mentioned before, and then you know, I went to college and hostel and Yes, sir. So
Unknown:how do you use them these days as part of your creative process?
Sirjana Singh:Okay, I'll come to that. But I have to mention because I, it's my train of thought that my favorite time of the day would be when I would wake up and see that I managed to carve some time out to go to the library, and later an hour to read in my room. That was an excellent start of the day. These days. I will batch things to schedule them in my day. So I will batch my days in the sense that today is an admin day. So I know that that day is coming up and I have to do admin that day and I you know, psyched myself up for that. And so come that day. I am not bogged down by everything.
Unknown:Suddenly coming my way. I'm already prepared for Right, as the day is that day is approaching. So it's interesting, you have this approach to admin where your little vampire has had it, you know, every time you have to do it, because I definitely do use other work to procrastinate doing creative things, because it makes me feel like I'm busy. I'm doing something. So
Sirjana Singh:like I said, we should do another episode on progressive schedules.
Unknown:Yeah. But this is why they're so important, right? Yeah, true. Because without them, I don't know how much time I'm spending on replying to emails or editing photos, or editing a video, I just sort of sit there and go, right, I want to finish this video, I'm going to edit it from start to finish, it could take like, two, three days, depending how big the job is, in which time, I've never not done anything, or even thought or creative thought of just sort of gone. This is my process. I'm going to work through this. And it might be that I've come across this particular problem in the editing that I wanted to fix and be creative about, but still not spending their time thinking about it. Right?
Sirjana Singh:Yeah. So these days when we have growing as a creative through these days, when we don't have enough time, because my hair is here. We I like making schedules that are most more so batch work. So today, I'm going to do all of this. And today I'm going to do all social media today, it's editing day, etc. Before he was here, my way of scheduling used to be batch time, if that makes sense. So from 10 to 12, I'm going to reply to emails, for example, that's, that's too long a time from 10 to 1030. I'm going to reply to emails and how many ever I can right now. That's good. Otherwise, the next time slot for that is from two to 230. And that's all the time that's the water two emails in a day. And then it would be you know, an hour of social media, and then two hours of editing, etc, etc. So
Unknown:where did you work on your creative stuff during that? So that was your your your creative stuff is painting? Yeah. It's coming up with new ideas for the business. It's photoshoots. Yeah,
Sirjana Singh:it's when I you know, when the Tuesday when normal people have their coffee, you know that when the time of the day, when you hit, you hit a slump. That's when I do my creative work that I used to do my creative work is I have had the slump, I cannot possibly sit at a desk and do all this work that requires all my energy. Now I'll do my creative work, which is going to give me energy is my caffeine. And I'm charged up again. And I
Unknown:decided to do that. Yeah. So so when I was researching the site, I read an article which, which quoted john Cleese the great john Cleese, yeah. And he had this idea where essentially, we spend most of our time in either two modes of work, one is open, and one is closed, right? You closed workers, all that admin stuff, it's, it's sitting there and doing what's at the end and knows and feels like it needs to be done. But he was very insistent on saying that you have to create a time in your day where you you are open, where you can do this creative stuff. And it could just be an hour or three hours, but has to be a time when you know, and everyone else around you knows that you're creating, and you're thinking creatively and you're doing this thing. And, you know, he also mentioned in there that he procrastinated, you know, by doing these these closed chores, because it feels like you're doing something, you think fine, this is good. I'm making headway, but really, you're really just hitting the grindstone hard. And you're not taking that time to step back. And when we're talking about creativity, it could just be that you're thinking about what you want to do with your business, or you're thinking about how you want to reshuffle your room. You know, you could be I don't know, who's listening. But, you know, if you're taking the time to essentially recharge and just think that that's the important part. Right that that's being creative. It's it's almost recharging.
Sirjana Singh:Yeah, absolutely is. And you're right before when we used to have a nine to five jobs and also do tinted. It used to feel like we are being productive, and we did a lot of admin work. It's only when we became full time we realized, Oh, my gosh, this is not nine to five, we have to push this business forward. And pushing any creative venture forward requires time that we award to our personal creative creativity and also time to think more creatively about the business and for the business, so we can push it forward. So that time was very important, which led to me then making schedule which was more time batch time is a better word for it. My mom brain is all muddled. And we all live hectic lives these days, and I swear they're getting busier by the minute. I can hardly believe how crammed our lives has been even during the pandemic. I mean, every time I look back on all those months, we were in a lockdown. I keep thinking what did we do and you wrote a guide About long exposure. Yeah,
Unknown:like, what is it? 40 pages? Yeah,
Sirjana Singh:very extensive. I learned how to play Mario Kart. And completely, like, I figured out how to switch more or less, you know, and I started my other business where I do personalized artwork, but very creative to carve out time. For our personal projects is an absolute must, regardless of how busy our life is, well, this
Unknown:is this is where this podcast came from. We've been wanting to do a podcast for years. And I think the, well a good friend of ours pushed us into it. But this was during lockdown. So it was it was we had that time all of a sudden,
Sirjana Singh:yeah, I started my side hustle. Like I said, I'm repeating myself, mom brain. But I'm creating personalized artwork, because I carve that me time for myself. Yeah, one of the books I read during lockdown was what I talked about when I talk about running, and certain by Murakami. And he has used his passion for fitness and running as a metaphor for writing and creative work. And he says, and I quote, I generally concentrate on work for three to four hours, every morning, I sit at my desk and focus totally on what I'm writing, I don't see anything else. I don't think about anything else. Now this sort of focus comes naturally to some people. And to some people, it comes with practice, and schedules, where you have carved time for something you want to do help us create that focus.
Unknown:So that's something that does not come naturally to me.
Sirjana Singh:But who don't I know, it
Unknown:is a step by step process. Yeah. But it is you become that dopamine center in your brain gets a little reward. When you've sort of you set an alarm you like, right, I'm gonna sit here, I'm gonna work for, say, half an hour, or 30 minutes. And when their little alarm goes off, and you realize you haven't got it up, and you haven't been twiddling your thumbs or looking at your phone, you're actually doing some work? Yeah, you feel good about it. And you feel really great. And the trick is to do that every day, because if you don't like myself, you forget how good you feel. And get back at square one. So it's a little bit like going to the gym. Yeah, you know, if you're working out every day, some days, you're gonna have a crappy day, and you're not gonna feel it. But if you go anyway, you're going to end up seeing the results. And it's the same as using your creative brain sitting there making sure that you go to the creative gym, and at the end of the day, you're going to become better off even if you're feeling not feeling at that particular day or a few days in a row. Keep at it.
Sirjana Singh:That's it. That's it, not feeling it. Yeah, I think we give too much importance to you know, outward happiness all of the time. Whereas happiness can be achieved in so many ways. We just know only one way Hey, am I smiling? Am I having fun? The thing is, we have to redefine happiness, and sometimes constant or sometimes, it's actually true. constantly searching for happiness can actually cause sadness. Can we agree? Yeah. So I don't buy into the whole I'm not feeling it. I just do it. And the thing is, like you said, dopamine is the act of setting an alarm. Dopamine hit the act of not hitting a snooze button dopamine hit. So it doesn't have to be like this. Feeling. It's just this quiet acknowledgement of Yeah, you're doing this.
Unknown:Yeah. Well, I mean, I'm thinking right now, Mario Kart, you know, if there's any gamers out there, the idea of like, beating Mario Kart on easy, doesn't give you a whole lot of like, woohoo, you know, it's when you've struggled, and you've, you've managed to beat it on hard. That's when you get that massive dopamine hit. And it's exactly the same thing when you're actually practicing a schedule and you're creating this moment for yourself to lead yourself on art essentially,
Sirjana Singh:yeah, but in the us that when I first started learning Mario Kart, even easy levels were amazing. So to remember that every step, no matter how easy it looks, is a step towards you know, that bigger idea and the bigger goal you have in mind. So don't underestimate small steps. If you are someone who is wanting a scheduled life where you can schedule, time for leisure and time for work, every small step you take towards that goal is actually great.
Unknown:So on that note, one of the things that I learned when I was researching this because that was the name of your author, Laura Cami Murakami. Yeah, he did everything in the morning, right. He picked a time of the day. So he was regular when he was creating so that his brain would be in the mood to create so instead of like one day going, Okay, my time my schedule today is that I will be creating between 10 and 11am. You and the next day I'll be creating between three and 4pm. You want to have that the same time every day. So that your brain is kind of geared up to what's happening, you know,
Sirjana Singh:well, that was his schedule. It doesn't have to be that way. But that seems like when both you and I read it, something that resonated with us, but every creative had his own way of creating a schedule. So this is not like this is it? This is not what is the word for it when you are prescriptive. This is not prescriptive. So, um, I'll quote Murakami, again, when you said he works in the morning, he, he, he says, When I'm in a writing mode for a novel, I get up at 4am and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon, I ran for 10 kilometres or swim for 1500 meters or do both. Then I read a bit and listen to some music, I go to bed at 9pm it does not have kids. I keep to this routine every day without variation, the repetition itself becomes the important thing. It's a form of mesmerism I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind. I absolutely adore this last line.
Unknown:Yeah, it's something that I can sit here and appreciate as well. Yeah, but it's also I don't know, since I was 10 years old, and we started doing timetables in class, you know, like how to schedule your time. I remember just hating on the very idea of having a universal like, okay, we're going to wake up today at this hour. And this is what we're going to do. It always seemed to take the excitement out of it for me. So that that's what I have had to face down and I suspect a lot of creatives to a lot of people who who won't, everybody does, you know, is this idea that you don't want this nine to five job all the time, because it's exactly the same day all the time until you're 45 and you decide to pick up a new job.
Sirjana Singh:A business is different all the day. All these are different. Whereas I personally think that the created schedule has such massive benefits for your creativity and giving your time giving your brain time and permission to create. That's
Unknown:exactly right. So this is sitting in now I'm feeling really jazzed I want to go make myself schedule to make sure that I already want this time to create because I don't find myself doing it enough.
Sirjana Singh:Alright, so the next one on one podcast episode isn't a month. And there are other I think it's a month or maybe a little more than I've got
Unknown:another topic to talk about. Then we've got our procrastination. Yeah, motivation.
Sirjana Singh:But great procrastination. If you keep that one, whenever we discussing the procrastination topic, we should bring it up and see if Ben has made the schedules from tomorrow to that episode. Oh, how did it work? How do you feel?
Unknown:Well, I'm gonna keep it real guys. I'm gonna try.
Sirjana Singh:But here's the thing. See, not everything can be scheduled. Too much predictability can sometimes upset the heart as that spontaneity is stifled.
Unknown:But it's only a feeling I think. I think that this is something like I personally need to get over. Because I really don't see that spontaneity is tirely a construct of an idea of mine that oh, I can be spontaneous today. But seriously,
Sirjana Singh:you don't have to be because you're bogged down in your own stuff that you have to get done. Because you didn't carve out time. Yeah, that's the thing. But I think spontaneity is important. Like they say there's time for work. There's time for play. I like being spontaneous when it comes to relationship stuff. You know, when I am surprising you or creating something for you in the kitchen or you know, just planning our anniversaries and stuff.
Unknown:You're amazing. Yeah. My idea of spontaneity is taking the phone into the bathroom in the morning. Oh, I'm spying What am I gonna Google today? No, I'm sad. Yes. I definitely have to create some time carve that out. Yep. To be a little more spontaneous.
Sirjana Singh:Yes. And I think in some future episode, Ben and I will discuss the joys of living living spontaneously for creatives
Ben Lane:whose happiness there
Sirjana Singh:is only this time for everything. Yeah.
Unknown:And it's something that we've definitely experienced traveling the world of it's like what's happening today?
Sirjana Singh:Yeah, you experienced it firsthand when I would create the schedule so I had a schedule of countries that we were going to go and visit in Europe and Ben had no idea I was the driver. Yeah, I got a GPS coordinate in the morning and wouldn't know where we're going also didn't know what time we were leaving in the morning so everything was a spontaneous affair. It was it was
Unknown:actually a pretty amazing I can't wait for those borders to open up again.
Sirjana Singh:And then for me to create that again. No, this time with Mahi It's gonna be so surprising how little dude. Well, okay, we will discuss the joys of living spontaneously for creatives for now, all I have to say is that as a creative and or to realize your potential as a creative schedules are important. Do you have anything to add?
Unknown:Well, I would say that trust in what certain is saying. It's very sage advice. I think after doing the research and having lived a life of Trying to ignore it. I can only sit here and feel like I'm missing out on something.
Sirjana Singh:Yeah, it really is something. I mean, like everything in life, you should give it a shot once. And I have the reason I am so confidently sitting here and talking about this is because as part of the mentoring that we do for other creatives, one of the things I have done for so many creatives is help them create their own schedule, something that will work for them in their, in their life, you know, if they are single parents, if they have multiple kids, if they are single, if they you know, are living a nomadic life like us, like there's so many different lifestyles that require so many different ways of scheduling and personalities. So, okay, we all said and done about schedules and creativity.
Ben Lane:Yeah, I mean, I think, also, takeaway schedules can be important. You don't have to do them. Sometimes spontaneity might be awesome, but you can schedule spontaneity.
Sirjana Singh:Yeah. Yeah. James clear said it so well. And I think we'll end the podcast with this. From James's new goals don't deliver new results, new lifestyles do. And a lifestyle is not an outcome. It is a process. For this reason, all of your energy should go into building better rituals, not chasing better results.
Unknown:I absolutely love that. Yeah, yeah. It's a process.
Sirjana Singh:It's a process. Awesome. You guys will see you angles. We will see you. Next night. Everybody in between? True. We will see you next time.
Ben Lane:I will be speaking the next time.
Sirjana Singh:We are speaking to an amazing person. She is so freaking talented. She is the queen of patterns and colors. She's from our own country here in New Zealand. Yeah, and I don't want to say more.
Unknown:Amazing. Alright guys. Did unit then bye. Yeah. Yeah, that'll be next time on the creative myth. Yeah.
Ben Lane:There you have it, peeps. Thanks so much for tuning in. We hope you learned lots of new junk and stuff today. If you enjoyed today's episode, or indeed any of the episodes on the creative myth, please rate this podcast and leave a review on iTunes that would absolutely make our day and help other like minded individuals to find the creative myths so we can forge a kick ass creative community for you all. We really appreciate you listening in with all of our heart. Speaking of community, we have been hard at work behind the scenes and have finally set up the creative myth Instagram page. So when you're done here, please head over and give that a like. You'll get access to special behind the scenes clips, creativity tips, and even some insider info from our amazing guests. Next time on the creative myth set in the chats with the marvelously creative sera Choate, founder and clothing designer at Mikey but clothing.com the one and only handmade designer rental company in New Zealand. But till then you know the drill, stay read. Stay tuned and live creative