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As I’ve spoken of before, it’s a good idea to make space for your creative works. Setting aside blocks of time for your work over trying to plan every hour is really beneficial. Having elaborate plans makes most of us feel pressure, having space to work feels like freedom.
However, as I’ve talked to creative types, I’ve found something else: we each have different “ideal” sizes of blocks and how to arrange them.
My idea block of creative time seems to be at least an hour, preferably more. It probably tops out at about two to four hours when I need a break.
On the other hand, I met a person who sets aside entire weekends to write and can churn out over 50,000 words over two days.
Why is this important?
First, finding your ideal creative “block time” means you can work out your schedule so you have time to create. It could be an hour at a time, so you can arrange many different efforts into an evening. It could be you need big blocks of time, so you pick a weekend day to do creative works.
Secondly, finding your ideal creative “block time” removes pressure on yourself. We creatives are constantly hearing how we should create, but finding how we create makes it ours. We may be able to use all that creative advice, but in our way.
Third, simply, you learn a lot about how you work. Finding the ideal timeframe for you to create lets you learn why. Other insights will probably follow.
So ask yourself – what is your ideal block of time to set aside for creative works? You might be surprised where that question goes . . .
Steven Savage