The Liberating Freedom of Scheduled Creativity

One quality that makes for a great artist is their ability to recognize and elegantly resolve a paradox. Performance versus reality. Expression versus restraint. Homage versus originality—just to name a few. 

But one paradox that still stumps many artists I know, one that’s especially relevant to their regular working lives, is structure versus creativity. These artists—the same ones who are otherwise perfectly capable of performing with nuance and subtlety—live on either extreme when it comes to balancing rules, timetables, and structure with freedom, expression, and creativity. It’s one or the other, many of them tell themselves.

The problem with this mindset is that it often leads to frustration and stagnation. Sometimes, in an effort to overcome writer’s block or to snap out of some other creative rut, many artists try to do away with the rigid confines of schedules and routines in favor of peace and quiet—an unstructured respite from the daily grind. With enough space and freedom, we tell ourselves, epiphany will surely show its face: all it takes is some healthy disconnect from the distractions of regular life.

There’s no doubt that some quality R&R can do wonders. Gustav Mahler wrote all of his symphonies ensconced in his very own alpine “composing hut,” far away from the hustle and bustle of Vienna. Kurt Vonnegut couldn’t finish any writing before a long breakfast and leisurely swim in his municipal pool. 

A nice long walk, a weekend away, or some aimless vegging can often help to yank us out of creative slumber. But, when unstructured, strolling around or relaxing in a cabin doesn’t actually make us better at our craft: it makes us better at strolling around and relaxing—sometimes, as an extra bonus, dropping a healthy dose of inspiration with it.

The opposite can also be true: Rather than wait for a spontaneous creative epiphany, some artists find comfort burying themselves in the business side of their work, taking back-to-back meetings, obsessively tracking weekly financials, and endlessly updating their marketing materials. Before they know it, a month has passed and they haven’t so much as looked at their craft—but the burnout from their administrative fever dream is so real that they can’t find the passion to re-engage in the art itself. 

Put simply, both cases are just another form of procrastination, helping us run away from the uncertainty, doubt, and discomfort that comes with undertaking any creative venture.

So what can we do about it? Instead of living on the extremes, I like to tell artists to make peace—and perhaps even learn to love—the apparent contradictions between structure and creativity. One easy way to do this, and to get to the heart of this slippery paradox, is to schedule unstructured time.

This may sound counterintuitive, but setting aside a discrete chunk of time every week to play, to get lost, to create without pressure to deliver or please might be the single most actionable thing you can do to jumpstart your creativity. Here are some tips to make scheduled creativity a regular part of your life.

• Embrace the daily ritual. If you’re someone who has a relatively consistent schedule to begin with, you may find it most effective to bake in a micro-moment of structured creativity into every single day. The screenwriter Julia Cameron writes three stream-of-consciousness pages in her journal every single morning. For Cameron, and the many artists who’ve taken inspiration from her teaching, these morning pages create a structured sanctuary in which the bounds of one’s creativity can be freely yet safely explored.

• Study the science of habits. In recent years, much research has been published on the ways habits become ingrained in our daily lives. Even a passing familiarity with this science can teach you to hack your own environment for better habit formation. For example, Charles Duhigg, the science writer and habit coach, recommends the cue-reward system for building new habits. First, set up a reliable cue: a calendar alert, a cup of coffee, walking your dog—something that happens regularly and tells your brain to go into habit mode. Next, identify a pleasurable reward: dessert, a stiff drink, a Real Housewives break—something to make the habit worth repeating. Finally combine cue, desired habit, and reward for a foolproof path toward habit mastery.

• Remember that nobody’s watching. One of the great advantages of structured creativity is that it creates a safe space for you to experiment, play around, and hone your craft—a space entirely devoid of critics, producers, or judgmental acquaintances. This is your time to work for yourself. The writer Ann Lamott took this concept to the next level when she coined the acronym S.F.D.—or shitty first draft. “The only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts,” Lamott writes. “You just let this childlike part of you channel whatever voices and visions come through and onto the page.” 

Look at the week ahead. No matter what your setup is, if you’re feeling a lack of creativity in your day to day, carve out time for it. As E.B. White once said: “A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.” In practice, this might mean typing “free write” into your calendar, telling Siri to remind you to “sing” at 8 p.m. twice a week, or putting your phone to do-not-disturb mode every other morning to just draw. Make it a priority, and with time, you’ll find that structure and creativity are two sides of the same coin.