Stay Up Late

This past week I was examining the latest suggestion from Bruce Mau's "Incomplete Manifesto for Growth" which reads "Stay up late. Strange things happen when you’ve gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you're separated from the rest of the world."

I agree that strange and often wonderful things occur when I'm separated from the world. No argument. But I don't believe you have to stay up and create in the middle of the night to have it happen. I have been working for the past few months at discovering an optimal work/life schedule for me. At first I threw out the corporate schedule I was use to. I then when to a very open, relaxed, unstructured schedule. Honestly, it was boring. I accomplished some but not enough and it didn't help my creativity. I talk a good game but I'm not a free spirit at heart. I soon realized that I work well in structure, just not a rigid corporate structure. I thrived when I set aside certain time periods for certain tasks. For example, I try to paint between 10am and 1pm for at least 2 hours daily. I have 3 hours in the afternoon which are designated to various projects and tasks depending on the day of the week. The rest of the time is left open for whatever else I want to do that day or what I believe has to get done. My productivity has soared.

So then I came to this recommendation to stay up. I recoiled at the idea as I had just found a good schedule that fits me like a glove with minimal stress and pretty good results. And in order to maintain the schedule, my sleep patterns had to be set in advanced. I'm a bit crabby if I don't get enough sleep.

Thinking about the recommendation more, I decided to go after the intent, namely, separate myself from the world. I could do that by temporarily change my schedule. Simply by moving my painting time to the afternoon one day, it would throw me off and let's see what would happen. Nothing happened, literally. I was the most unproductive I have ever been since I began my adventure as an artist. It could have been the day I chose for the experiment or the idea of simply moving my schedule around was flawed. I think the idea was flawed.

There may be something behind the recommendation to stay up and separate. I don't know. It is in contrast to everything that I know to work well. This is one suggestion I cannot stand behind without throwing out my schedule. I doubt the payback is enough to do so. I do recommend however, if you can, to find ways to detach and separate yourself. Creativity is about reaching inside, it is a solitary experience.

This week, I will review the next suggestion "Work the metaphor. Every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for."