Time Management For Creative People Part.2 "Prioritise work that is ‘important but not urgent’"

 

A couple of years ago, I was facing a brick wall. I was in the second year of a part-time Master’s degree that was essential for my business. I was invited to edit an issue of Magma, one of the top poetry magazines in the UK – as a poet, this was a chance I couldn’t turn down. I was also getting married, which took a fair amount of preparation too – and that was one opportunity I was

definitely not turning down! Meanwhile, I somehow had to keep my business going, keep my clients happy and fund all these extra-curricular activities.

As if that weren’t enough, I discovered this new phenomenon called blogging – or rather, discovered that people were using it to spread their ideas and promote their businesses, rather

than just to write about their cat’s breakfast menu. It looked like a perfect medium for me – I loved

writing, I had ideas I wanted to get into circulation, and I loved connecting with new people. But where was I going to find the time?

I’d already made a reluctant deal with myself to put my poetry-writing ‘on-hold’ until the end of

the MA (on condition that I resumed afterwards, which I’m now doing with pleasure). But I was still faced with the seemingly impossible task of finding quality, focused time, away from interruptions,

to write my essays, read poetry submissions with the care they deserved, and start a blog. After scanning my diary and surveying the tasks in hand, I was faced with a depressing conclusion.

I was going to have to get up early.

There was simply no other time in my schedule – or not the quiet, uninterrupted time I needed for

my work, without the intrusion of phone calls, e-mails, meetings and classes. I had never considered myself one of nature’s early risers, and working from home much of the time had

allowed me the luxury of avoiding early starts for commuting. On a good day I’d be up by 7.30, on

a bad day it was closer to 8.30. Still time to get a reasonable amount of work done by starting at

9.00 – but I was faced with an unreasonable amount of work, so drastic action was called for.

My new start time became 6.30am. If you want to know how I managed this, read Steve Pavlina’s excellent post How to become an early riser. Here, I’m more concerned with the effect – since making the change, I’ve edited a postbag of 2,500 poems into Magma issue 34,  achieved a distinction in my Master’s, and created the Wishful Thinking blog which has transformed my business and opened up many new creative avenues for me to explore. I’ve also written some poems I’m pleased with (at the moment, anyway) and which are gradually making it into

publication. Most importantly of all, I made it to the wedding on time!

I’m not listing the above to blow my own trumpet, but to illustrate the value of ring-fencing time

for your own creative work, in the midst of more urgent demands. It would have been easy for me

to justify turning down the poetry magazine because I was too busy. It would have been even easier to put off starting the blog until I had more time. I could even have reasoned my way into

stopping or deferring the Master’s. But the thing is, there will always be something ‘urgent’ taking

my attention away from my own creative initiatives. Yet when I look back over the last couple of

years, the time when I’ve created most value, for myself and my clients, has been those first hours

of the day I’ve spent writing blog posts, essays, seminars and poems. It’s the creative wellspring that feeds into all the coaching, training, presenting and consulting I do when I’m face-to-face

with clients.

Enough about me. How can you find time to achieve your creative ambitions?

Prioritise work that is ‘important but not urgent’

In his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey classifies work tasks according to whether they are important or urgent.

Covey points out that many of us spend too much time on tasks that are urgent and important

(the red square in the diagram) – in other words, staving off emergencies by rushing around to

solve problems or responding to others’ demands at short notice. Sometimes this is unavoidable

– ‘deadline magic’ can spur us on to feats of creative production we wouldn’t otherwise attempt. This can be an exciting and productive experience – but it’s up to you whether you want to work

like this most of the time. The example of the computer games industry – where extended

‘crunch’ times can mean endless overtime to meet a deadline – suggests that prolonged deadline magic can turn into deadline misery, with a significant impact on morale and efficiency.

Covey’s solution is to prioritise work that is important but not urgent (the blue square in the diagram). Though this is hard to do on any given day, it is the only way to ensure you are making progress towards your own goals and dreams, instead of merely reacting to what other people

throw at you. And over time, the more you are dealing with important things before they become

urgent, the fewer ‘urgent and important’ tasks you will have to deal with.

The most obvious way to do this is to work on your own projects first every day, even if it’s only

for half an hour. Whatever interruptions come along later, you will at least have the satisfaction of having made some progress towards your own goals.

It’s obviously not just a question of time – you also need to ring-fence your attention so that you can devote your full attention to your creative work, without being knocked off course by distractions. The next chapter will look at how some highly creative people have achieved this,

and what you can learn from them.

 

Aneh

Hari ini aneh bgt guys,tadi pagi ku bangun jam 5an,tapi ga kayak biasanya aku klo dibangunin tidur lagi sampe sholat pun males bgt,biasanya klo pagi2 ku denger suara mamah "surya bangun udah siang trus sholat"dan biasanya ku langsung bangun dan ke kamar mandi dan berwudhu,tapi hari ini aneh bgt,rasanya tu berat bgt untuk bangun,badan lemes,kepala pusing ga karuan,ngantuk dlsb..

setelah ku baca "basmallah" dan ku coba menahan rasa yang berkecamuk di dlm diriku,tapi setelah wudhu balik lagi ke kamar,eh tau taunya aku tidur lagi,sampe papahpun ikut bingung,trus ku coba bangun dan sholat (akhirnya bisa)

*setelah sholat shubuh jadwalnya di haruskan mandi
ugghhh tapi habis sholat langsung tidur lagi yang ada di pikiranku adalah semoga mamah mengijinkan ku untuk tdk masuk sekolah hari ini,tapi tak boleh,, ya sudah ,,

dan akhirnya ku mandi deh ,,tapi pas mandi kq rasanya aneh bgt,airnya itu bnr2 dingin ga seperti biasanya,dan keadaan di kamar mandi juga beda bgt,ga tau ada apa di diriku saat ini??

habis mandi aku ketiduran lagi.. ga biasanya aku habis mandi pagi tidur lagi,dan bangun tau2 udah jam 06.15 , kaget aku liat jamnya ,biasanya jam 06.15 aku dah siap brgkt sekolah,oke aku langsung buru2 pake eragam sekolah tapi cuma bajunya,celananya belum dan langsung sarapan,setelah itu aku lengkapi pakaianku dan brgkt,anehnya lagi pas brgkt persaanku berubah jadi ga enak,yang ada di perasaanku "berangkat??engga??berangkat??engga...dst....bawa laptop??engga?bawa ga yah??...dst.."
oke aku hilangkan dari pikiran tentang perasaan ini,dan aku brgkt,

pas jalan menuju sekolah,situasi jalan kq beda bgt,kayaknya tenang bgt,,
setelh sampai di sekolah aku melaksanakan 5S di dpn hall dg guru2..dan aku masuk,,setelah sampai di kelas,aku baru ingat kalau jam pertama ada jamnya bu ros,aku aku putuskan untuk nyapu sampai bu rosnya dateng dan kena ceramah lagi (seperti biasa,selalu setiap hari selasa,rabu dan jum`at),dan aku coba konsen nrima pljrn,oke bu ros kasih soal ,,aku jawab dengan sigap dan hasilnya 14 ohm,, trus,aku di bilangin"surya,kmrn nomer ini salah ya waktu uas" ,, iya bu,, sayanya lupa sih,,(alasan,dasare iya koh heheh)
oke,, setelah itu ada jamnya pak subkhan ,,tapi cuma 1 jam,,harusnya 2 jam,,trus hbs itu pljrnnya bu atik,,tapi pas pljrn itu kq hawanya ngantuk bgttttttttttttttt ,, tpi bener anak 1 kelas juga merasakan hal yg sama,sampe2 di kasih tugas pun malah pada terkapar di meja masing2,, oke istirahat ke dua,,
jam terkahir pljrnnya walkel Mr.Supadyo,, tapi beliau tidak brgkt k sekolah ,krn istrinya sedang sakit di geriatri dan mau di operasi,, setelah aku denger itu ,,aku punya rencana hari rabu pulang sekolah pake mobil athia ke purwokerto,, sekalian nnton Heart 2 heart,,mumpung yang bawa bapaknya ami,,oke,,siap ,, jam pulang masih kurang 35 menit ,,tapi IXE udah membubarkan diri dari kelas dan pulang,,

-BERSAMBUNG-

Time Management For Creative People Part.1 " Why you need to be organised to be creative ??"

“Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work.”

Gustave Flaubert

So you start the day full of enthusiasm. You’re excited about a new piece of creative work and

itching to put your ideas into action. Firing up your computer,  the familiar stream of e-mails pours into your inbox, burying the ones you didn’t get round to replying to yesterday. Scanning through

the list, your heart sinks – two of them look as though they require urgent action. You hit ‘reply’ and start typing a response to one of them… 20 minutes later you ‘come round’ and realise you’ve got sucked into the e-mail zone and have been sidetracked by interesting links sent by friends, as well as writing replies about issues that aren’t a priority for you. You minimize the e- mail window and get back to your project…

After 15 minutes you’re really enjoying yourself, getting into your creative flow – when the phone rings. Somebody wants something from you. Something to do with a meeting last week. You rummage through the papers on your desk, searching for your notes. You can’t find them.

Suddenly your heart leaps as you lift up a folder and find an important letter you’d forgotten about

– it needed an urgent response, several days ago. ‘Hang on, I’ll get back to you’ you tell the

person on the phone,  ‘I’ll ring you back when I’ve found it’. You put the phone down and pick up

the letter – this needs sorting immediately, but you remember why you put it off – it involves

several phone calls and hunting through your files for documents you’re not sure you even kept.

By now, you’ve only got half an hour before your first meeting and you’ve promised to ring that person back. . Your design stares at you reproachfully. The e-mail inbox is pinging away as it fills

up – already there are more messages than before you started answering them. Your enthusiasm has nosedived and the day has hardly begun. Creative work seems like a distant dream.

. . .

Is this a familiar scenario for you?  Swap the design software for a wordprocessor and I’ve been there a hundred times. In an ideal world we’d be putting all our time and energy into creative

work, but the realities of modern work often seem to be conspiring against us. And in lots of ways the scenario is getting worse. The wonderful thing about modern technology is the amount of communication and information-sharing it facilitates. And the awful thing about modern

technology is the amount of communication and information-sharing it facilitates. We are deluged with new information and connections, via telephones, webcams,  instant messengers, e-mail, websites, blogs, newsletters, wikis,  and social networking technology. The list gets longer every year. And with Blackberry and the mobile internet you can have data and demands coming at you

24/7. No wonder people are starting to run workshops on ‘digital stress’.

All of which is bad enough whatever your line of work. But if you’re a professional artist or

creative, it’s even more damaging. Concentration is essential for creative work - certain stages of the creative process require single-minded focus on the task in hand. When we’re really in the

zone, we experience ‘creative flow’ – the ‘almost automatic, effortless, yet highly focused state of consciousness’ that psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has identified as characteristic of high- level creative performance. Interruptions, multi-tasking and the anxiety that comes from trying to juggle multiple commitments – these are in danger of eroding the focused concentration that is

vital for your creativity.

If you’re worried about the effect of all those interruptions, frustrations and distractions on your creative work, this e-book is for you. Over the next seven chapters I will offer you some principles and practical methods for maintaining your creative focus under pressure, and for managing the stream of information and demands so that it informs and stimulates your creativity instead of drowning it out.

And that means being organised.

There, I’ve said it. Organisation, structure, discipline and habit – these often seen as threats to creativity. Not to mention corporate-sounding phrases such as ‘time management’ or ‘workflow’.

We like to think of creativity as a space for untrammelled imagination, free from all constraints. Yet

while freedom, rule-breaking and inspiration are undoubtedly essential to the creative process, the popular image of creativity overlooks another aspect: examine the life of any great artist and you

will find evidence of hard work, discipline and a hard-won knowledge of the rules and conventions

of their medium. Choreographer Twyla Tharp, who directed the opera and dance scenes for the film Amadeus, has this to say about the film’s portrait of Mozart:

The film Amadeus dramatizes and romanticizes the divine origins of creative genius. Antonio Salieri, representing the talented hack, is cursed to live in the time of Mozart, the

gifted and undisciplined genius who writes as though touched by the hand of God… Of

course this is hogwash. There are no ‘natural’ geniuses… No-one worked harder than

Mozart. By the time he was twenty-eight years old, his hands were deformed because of

all the hours he had spent practicing, performing, and gripping a quill pen to compose…

As Mozart himself wrote to a friend, “People err who think my art comes easily to me. I

assure you, dear friend, nobody has devoted so much time and thought to composition as

I. There is not a famous master whose music I have not industriously studied through many times.”

This passage is taken from Tharp’s excellent book The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it for Life,

in which she argues that ‘routine is as much a part of the creative process as the lightning bolt of inspiration, maybe more’. It’s an inspiring, challenging and very practical book that deserves a space on the shelf of anyone who takes their creative work seriously.

I’m not suggesting that all artists and creatives need to be ‘organised’ in a way that would satisfy

a corporate boss. You might get up at noon and work at home in your dressing gown, in a pigsty

of a living room. You might check into a different hotel room every day and work on the bed. Your creative process and working habits might look like total chaos to an outsider, but if they work for you, that’s all that matters. And there will be some method in the madness – patterns in your daily activities that are vital to your creativity. These are the things you need to do to keep your

imagination alive – whether it’s sitting at a desk by 6am, using the same pen, notebook or make of computer, hitch-hiking across America, putting rotten apples in your desk so that the scent wafts

into your nostrils as you work, or sitting in your favourite café with a glass of absinthe.

In this e-book, I will offer some suggestions for keeping the tide of external demands at bay and helping you to develop a truly creative routine and rhythm to your working day. I won’t offer you a rigid system or any ‘best practice’ nonsense – just some principles and suggestions for you to try out and adapt as you see fit. As well as drawing on my own experience and study of the creative process, I’ll refer to some well-known time- management systems and suggest what I think they have to offer creative professionals.

The next seven chapters will look at specific elements of personal organisation and time management, while the final chapter will be a list of further resources.

Article Post Foreign language

sorry friends
there is a post that I type using the French language that I learned from some dictionary

sorry!
Another time I will also use the german language or Spanish or Portuguese or Italian or maybe Latin language

We'll just see what language I use in writing another post time

today I'd like to write with Latin, but my brain is less attractive if inspiration

but I promise will make a post again with further languages including English and Indonesian (required)
See you in astikel post about my other experiences

greeting

-SURYA-

Mon espoir pour l'avenir . My hope for the future

ne sais pas quand je suis sûr que
ne sais pas quand je me suis senti que c'était une certaine

J'espère toujours que tard dans la vie pourrait être quelqu'un qui est vraiment dans l'espoir que, dans mon quartier qui vivent dans
Je voulais atteindre les étoiles dans le ciel et de donner le plus beau sourire
Je voulais éblouir mes jours avec un million de rêves sont atteints

très belle, surtout quand je m'attends à il ya quelqu'un qui m'acceptera avec ce qu'il est
pas à cause de la richesse, parce que je suis riche famille
non pas parce que mon corps parce que le corps les grands
pas à cause de mon engouement
mais accepter de vivre avec tout mon coeur

Mon voyage est encore long pour le faire tous les
Je dois essayer dur pour être en mesure d'atteindre les étoiles qui souriait avec éclat dans le ciel
Je devrais être utile pour le pays et la nation

surtout maintenant que je suis très sûr que je peux entrer dans cette classe au SMAN 1 Purwokerto mais je ne sais pas si je peux être un de ses élèves ou no oui j'espère que cela a été le camarade!