Can you schedule creativity?

No.  Don't be silly.  You can't schedule creativity.

For one thing, "creativity" is not a thing that happens.  In fact, an argument can be made that "creativity" is not really a thing.  (For example, did you know that CREATIVITY is not a library subject heading, either in the Sears List of Subject Headings or in the Library of Congress? Both will refer you to CREATIVE ABILITY, which opens up another can of worms.)

You can, however, schedule work.

Last week I began using an actual desk calendar again:

(The finger labyrinth is by Christine Gautreaux.  You can get yours here.)

I used to use this calendar when I was the media specialist at Newnan Crossing Elementary School and even more when I was Director of the Governor's Honors Program at the Georgia Department of Education.  Since retiring, of course, I haven't really had a lot to schedule, so I quit using it. 

Mostly I've been using my computer/phone calendar to make sure I was in the right place at the right time, but with the new year comes new intentions, etc., etc., and so I cleared away the area in front of my monitor and invented a schedule.

Why?

A mistake many people make is thinking that artists do in fact run on "creativity," by which they mean some mystical force that flows into the "creative" person.  They are inspired (from the Latin, meaning "breathed into"), and poof! art happens.  And we all know what happens when inspiration fails.

But Sir Philip Sidney said it 400 years ago: "Fool," said my Muse to me, "Look in thy heart and write."

In other words, get to work.  And if you are going to work, don't you have to clock in and out?

It's all about RITUAL, isn't it? We have to answer the call to adventure, to enter that dark wood to grapple with our art—if we are ever going to actually produce any.  I have found that I tend to fritter away my time with TASK AVOIDANCE if I'm not careful, and the daily schedule now gives me a goal.  Having it in writing in front of me gives me my assignment for each day: write for my regular blog and for here, work on the book, walk my labyrinth, and then plan for a couple of future projects.

Of course the schedule gets disrupted.  I have to run errands, or a friend needs help with something, or the house needs cleaning.  The schedule can change: I may decide to work on a piece of music, or go garden.  The schedule will change as different projects loom into view or as my interests lead me to different paths.

But it is a schedule.  On Wednesday, I'll talk more about why it's important.