U/B 29: Creators need freedom to f*ck around
Like athletes need to stretch their muscles, creators need to stretch their minds.
Hi! This one’s for the artists, designers, writers, developers, musicians, and anyone who does “creative” work.
How do you build rest and active recovery into your work schedule? Because you need those. I don’t mean Netflix and chill while you’re on the clock. I mean low-to-no pressure activities that stimulate your brain but don’t have to make visible progress toward your goals. Games, play, art, creation.
Folks who work in education and the arts understand the importance of play and expression. Some people in business get it. But many (i.e. senior leadership) still operate with an outdated industrial mindset that prioritizes “performance” and “the real work” (which is a fallacy, btw1) to the point that it monopolizes time and energy and we end up in an epidemic of burnout among knowledge workers.
We’re no longer in the industrial era. We’re in an information age. Maybe it’s time to shed some bad habits?
Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. ~ Parkinson’s Law
Professional athletes get paid to perform, but their performance would suffer without periods of active recovery and rest. They have to cool down, stretch, practice. They have physical therapists, coaches, and others dedicated to the in-between time.
Would they say that’s not “real work”? Of course not. Practice, stretching, and healing are crucial to the quality of an athlete's performance. It's how one evolves from amateur to professional.
Exceptional creative work requires periods of not performing, too. Space to wander, wonder, remix, try, fail, learn, pause, rest. And a week off after the big launch isn’t going to cut it. If that’s what your team is doing, the professionals will eventually leave (or their work and well-being will suffer).
Active recovery is as important as rest. How do you stretch and massage your brain? What sorts of low stakes activities, projects, or games are useful? Do you make time for those every day? Every week?
Building something with your hands can be particularly rejuvenating for people who think deeply and don't move their bodies much at work (e.g. me). Consider what you could make individually or with a group. Maybe something for your community. Put together craft kits for a school. Knit blankets for a hospital. The possibilities are limitless.
Like athletes need to stretch their muscles, creators need to stretch their minds.2
Want an exceptional creative team? Treat them like professionals. Give them space to fuck around.
What do you think?
Love,
Kate
p.s. Creatives can also stretch their muscles and atheletes can
The phrase “the real work” makes me cringe. Whoever says it often is making a judgment on someone’s work being more valuable than someone else’s work or that the only thing that matters is the work that is closest to the money.
This is meant to be a comparison, not a contrast. Athletes can (and should) stretch their minds. Creatives can (and should) stretch their muscles.