Sometimes the best thing to do when working so hard on a project that is not coming together is just walking away from it all. Yes, walk away from your creative project. It’s absolutely the best thing you can do for it. It can be the difference between doing something really creative and something which is just meh (for the lack of a better word).

This week’s project – titled “Fractured” – was a tough one for me to work on.  I was excited last week when I came up with the creative technique of making a crazy quilt block with no sewing. Yes, absolutely no sewing. Not even one stitch was involved in creating that patchwork quilt. And I felt so g-o-o-d about the technique.

But then this week, when it came to pushing that idea further and stacking some more ideas on top of that foundation, it became a challenge. Each time I’ll stack ideas on top of ideas, they’ll all come crumbling down.  I’ll pick them up, rearrange them in a presumably superior order and somehow, they’ll all come tumbling down again. It kept happening time and time again.

Why You Should Walk Away From Your Creative Project

After working on my project for several hours – longer than a typical 8-hour work day, I knew it was time to change course. I was not making any progress – I was just wearing myself out. And I was getting low on brain energy. I was experiencing decision fatigue. Often making the decision to walk away is a critical part of the creative process.

Walking away allows your brain to connect the dots.  It’s called the incubation period. And it’s the reason lots of ideas come together ( light-bulb-moments) in the shower or on long walks.

When you get to the point where you’re not making progress, just walk away from it all for a while.

Our brains need the space to wander and to do their own thing in order to bring our ideas together.  Usually, we creatives don’t have the patience to allow this to naturally occur.  I’ll be the first to raise my hand up to that charge. When you get to the point when you’re not making progress, though, you need to walk away from your creative project.

How to Walk Away From Your Creative Project

Walking way from your creative project can literally mean

• going for a walk,
• taking a shower,
• sleeping on it
• getting yourself a cup of tea (my personal fave)
• going for a long drive

It means engaging in a totally unrelated activity that allows your subconscious mind the space to keep working things out while you’re no longer actively thinking about it.  Eventually, when I came to the realization, it was time to walk away from my creative project, I decided to call it a day and go sleep.

Burning the midnight oil is not always the smartest thing to do. Getting a good night sleep is smarter.

However, I totally understand that when you’re working towards a deadline, it’s tempting to overlook or underestimate the importance of an incubation period.  That was what was happening in this case. 

I needed to produce the video for this weeks’s episode.  And that takes several hours to do.  So I was pushing myself to come up with the ideas for finishing the project as fast as I could.  But the best thing I did for the project was to go to bed. It’s as simple as that. The next morning when I went back to work on it, it was much easier to make progress.

The French mathematician Henri Poincaré put it this way:

Often when one works at a hard question, nothing good is accomplished at the first attack. Then one takes a rest, longer or shorter, and sits down anew to the work. During the first half-hour, as before, nothing is found, and then all of a sudden the decisive idea presents itself to the mind. 

Your Turn

Do you ever walk away from your creative project to regroup? Do share your experiences below.

Warmest Regards,

Hello, and welcome to my first blog post.

This blog is a resource for all creative individuals.  A place to learn, be inspired and share your creative endeavors.

I’ll share what inspires me to create, discuss what I’ve learned, and tell you books I’m reading, projects I’m working on, and hopefully motivate you to also become a creator or create more.

So if this is a resource for the creatives: ” Who are they?”

Who are the Creative People?

To me, creative people are just a bunch of people who have a passion for creating awesome things from ordinary stuff. They are people who enjoy the process maybe much more than the thing they eventually create.

I’m a member of a creativity group on LinkedIn and the question – “what is creativity?” has been an ongoing discussion for the longest time. 

What is Creativity?

My answer to that is: creativity is playful work.  Creativity involves hard work, fun and awesome outcomes. So anyone who works hard at something unique and still has a lot of fun doing it is most likely being creative at what they do.

Creativity is playful work.

Whether you combine unlikely ingredients in a cooking pot to make a sumptuous meal for dinner or photograph an object from an awkward angle with unconventional lighting to produce stellar results, you are a creative.

Similarly, if you design the electronic circuitry in a device or plan the most efficient transportation system or find ways of helping patients stay in their homes and yet receive world-class health care, you too are a creative.

Invitation to Join This Creative Community

So, to all you creatives out there, welcome to my blog. I hope you will find meaningful information here to improve your creativity and I look forward to hearing your ideas and views.

To get updates on my future blog posts and for my newsletter, join my email list below.

Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear what you think. Leave a comment.

And now, go let out your creative genius.