Routines and the Creative Life
Sometimes routines are helpful. Sometimes they are harmful. Review them frequently.
I am a creature of habit.
My morning routine is on autopilot.
Get up. Unplug tablet and phone to take downstairs with my journal and a pen. Feed cat, make oatmeal and tea. Head to my comfy chair and enjoy the south-facing view of the light seeping into the woods from the left while eating.
Recently circumstances have required modification of this routine. I am preparing a limited breakfast in another area of the house, with a small window facing a different direction.
Two mornings ago, I peered out the window to see a pre-dawn sky to the northeast. After glimpsing the colors, I stepped outside into the cold breeze to see luminous purple and pink clouds through the tall oaks. I wanted to burn the view into my memory. When I looked outside just minutes later, the colors had been wiped away and replaced with more subtlety as the sun rose above the trees. I was grateful that I had been blessed with the chance to view and marvel at those fleeting colors.
The memory stayed in my mind’s eye for the next two days, when I finally found time to try to capture them with a paintbrush. The painting does not do the colors justice, but it helps me to remember what the morning looked like and to re-experience the awe I felt.
The Pros and Cons of Routines
As we grow up, routines build self-discipline and help us live harmoniously in our families and in the world around us. Nature itself imposes routines in the gentle cycling of the seasons, and we should learn to live more in sync with the earth’s seasons.
Routines can reduce stress by eliminating uncertainty, helping us to get to work on time, and creating healthy habits like sticking to a set time for exercise and prayer or meditation.
When routines become too inflexible, they can be unhealthy, turning into meaningless compulsions. If a routine becomes an excuse for avoiding a spontaneous invitation, it’s a sign that there is some deeper reason for withdrawal, like depression or unresolved conflict. Life can’t be all about routines, and my little painting will remind me of what I might miss if I don’t change my routine a bit now and then.
In my creative life, some routines are a good thing, creating a strong scaffold for my art skills. At times I can stick to a daily schedule, but sometimes (like now) I can’t do much more than sit down and paint every few days.
But creativity requires both feeding and doing. Feeding is something we address through cultivating a variety of inputs. Doing is putting the brush or pen to paper.
Here are some other ways to break out of rigid routines.
Do creative work in a different room, near a different window.
Use a different sketching or painting medium every now and then.
Use a different way to get your written thoughts down. Write in script or print in capital letters or type out your work on a typewriter or computer. Speak your next post or essay with a speech to text app.
Walk a different trail or walk the same trail in the opposite direction.
Research artists from a style that I don’t naturally gravitate towards.
Read different authors and different genres.
Listen to different music.
Take a brief road trip to see some new vistas.
Get up 15 minutes earlier to watch the sky.
Go to a different cafe to work or sketch.
If you feel like you are in a creative rut, start with some self-reflection about your routines (or lack thereof). A routine that feels too much like stifling autopilot needs to be abandoned or changed. Drifting along with no routine for too long might require more structure in your time.
There is no one size fits all answer, and routines always need periodic evaluation and adjustment to deal with life’s changing needs.
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I agree and think a rigid routine isn’t necessary or useful. Thank you for these tips Jo :)
interesting reflections . . i'm a creature of habit and i love them . . they make my life easier, but i agree with you . . it's needed to think about them from time to time, evaluate them
i love returning from work by a different route every so often . . it's a simple thing, but it makes me happier than repeating the same route 100% of the time :)