Relief when you face a creative block

[Leslie B Wagle]

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210319-why-procrastination-can-help-fuel-creativity

I think what this article points out has proven true for me, at least I have noticed it without having heard a formal theory about it. If you feel stressed, don’t think you have to slog harder as that often just creates exhaustion and frustration. Even in a time jam! But most often when just fearing that time will “run out,” the best practice is to tackle the problem after a period of sleep, or trusting that it will come to you on a walk, or doing something mundane in the following day or so. And the net effect is more efficiency that a “heroic” self torment. Anybody with the same observation?

• This topic was modified 3 years ago by Leslie B Wagle.

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

Everyone has different ways to deal with it.

My father used to tell me that when you reach a creative block it is best to do something knowing that you’ll undo it later rather than to stagnate. I found that to be true back when we were building rock gardens … we’d add a plant or rock that did not really do what we wanted it to do, but soon afterward it would trigger a creative response that did work, so we’d pull them out and rearrange.

I find it works designing on screen as well. I will save my drawing, then save it with a new name so that I can always go back to the old one. Then I go on tangents, sometimes weird ones, that either develop into something good, or enable me to see yet a different path to follow. … and I don’t have to move rocks or plants to accomplish that!

I’m always saving drawings by adding a number onto the end of the cad file …. one job got to #42, but that was because the client was changing stuff constantly. Usually a residential job will be up to 5 or 6.

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