The “Productivity” Lie is Killing Your Creativity

Your art doesn’t care about your nine to five conditioning.

I struggled this week. I didn’t write anything. I didn’t resume any projects. I didn’t record any videos. I didn’t take any decent photos. It was stressful. More accurately it was depressing.

For the last year and a half, I have been a full-time content creator. My wife and I have sustained ourselves largely through writing and editing. We also podcast and do bits of video when we can.

I spoke to my wife, who is also my business and creative partner. I explained that I was feeling a way about my lack of creativity and, by extension, my lack of productivity. Her response “Lean into it.”

Prior to being a full-time content creator, I worked mostly low-paying hourly gigs and sales positions. At my lowest, I was homeless for several months. I slept on couches, trains, and shelters during that time. When you are in that position, anyone will tell you you are constantly working or looking for work. You are either treading water or drowning. Swimming is a dream.

Leaning into being unproductive runs counter to everything I know.

So, why lean into not being productive as a creator?

The short answer is that, for the most part, creative nonproductivity is a myth. The problem is how we define what constitutes productivity.

By in large we are all trained to be widget makers. We go from school to 9 to 5 jobs that largely measure our success and failure to complete many tasks in a day. When we have a day that is less productive we are either judged for it or worse we are penalized.

In the course of my years scraping by and working to keep my head above water I developed a mantra. You are as relevant as you are useful. It is a truism that I still believe when it comes to traditional work. Your ability to produce Your level of usefulness (hours worked, sales made, widgets assembled) directly impacts your relevance (raises, promotions, respect).

This mindset that, as accurate as it may be in the traditional, fails in the artistic.

Much of the art we create is born from contemplation. Writers, for example, are always writing, even when there is no keyboard at hand. We imagine. We plan. We edit.

We are taught that this time in our heads is procrastination. Imagination is not work shown so how do we quantify it’s value? Without that quantifying how do we determine the value of your work? Without knowing the value of thst work how do we determine your value as a person?

The first skill we as creatives need tk develop is the ability to break away from the concept of productivity as it has been taught to us. That version of production often results in lower quality work for the sake of simply doing more work.