4,000 Ideas: Chapter 9
The tangled ball of rest, leisure, and creativity đ§¶
Welcome back to 4,000 Ideas, the Oliver Burkeman Book Club for Creatives! If you missed any of the earlier posts, you can catch up here. This is a book club where you donât have to read the book to follow along. You just need a curious spirit and an open mind. The comments are juicy and the people are friendly. I hope youâll join us!
This Is Supposed to Be Fun, Right?
Have you ever made time to work on your art but the whole thing was ruined by worrying whether youâre âwastingâ your time and not being productive enough? My friend M has been passionate about pottery for decades. Now after a season of INTENSE parenting, she has a tiny bit of time to go to a studio and make something each week. It is an absolute joy and also a source of a lot of anxiety and stress for her. Some days she worries sheâs not getting enough done or doing good work. But sheâs not selling the pots. Sheâs not entering them in contests. Sheâs the only one who sees her work. Sheâs the only one who cares. And yet somehow sheâs internalized the message that taking her work seriously means imposing deadlines and standards on yourself, putting in long hours, making progress, finishing everything you start, and always doing more.
If Not, Whatâs the Point?
Thereâs plenty of research that shows taking a little time to doodle, read a poem, or listen to music can make you more creative in other settings. Creative or not, many people in our culture believe that if you spend your leisure hours well, youâll be a better worker, which sounds good to corporations, but sucks all the fun and meaning out of it for us. Whenâs the last time you took a walk just because you like being outside (not to lose weight or emotionally regulate yourself for another round of parenting)? Parents are so short on time that it can be hard to justify activities we enjoy doing if there isnât some other benefit, either to our health or to the wellbeing of our kids. But we probably deserve to do things that make us feel good just because they make us feel good, not because they make us better parents. We can even ruin something as wonderful as reading by thinking we âshouldâ read certain books or pushing ourselves to read faster so we can somehow âcompleteâ our reading, even though thatâs an impossible task.
Focusing on the potential benefits of creativity tends to make even our downtime feel stressful and dutiful, and leisure and rest end up being something we do just so we can work more. As Oliver Burkeman writes âIn this view of time, anything that doesnât create some form of value for the future is, by definition, mere idleness.â
That makes it hard to enjoy rest, whatever that looks like for you.
One of the tricky things about this mindset is that it can creep over into our creative work, even when we donât mean for that to happen. I can easily have an idea for a poem, sit down to write it, revise it, and then jump to thinking I should write more so I can sell a book of poems. đ Or I can draw in my sketchbook and then wonder if I should take a class so I can learn how to develop patterns and license them to clients. đ ââïž Even if we donât intend to make money with our art, we can give ourselves false deadlines, rush through the creative process so we can do the next thing (whatever that is), and question the point of our projects if we donât feel like weâre making âprogressâ in some way or another.
Burkeman argues that to step away from the demands of capitalism and productivity culture, we must focus solely on the pleasure of the moment. In other words, the only way to not waste time is to be âtruly at leisure, rather than covertly engaged in future-focused self improvement.â But what does this look like?
How do we apply this to our creative lives?
If youâre already a paid subscriberâŠthank you! Keep reading. I canât wait to chat with you in the comments. If youâre hitting a paywall, you can upgrade to paid so you can continue reading this post, access the journal prompts, and join the discussion on the value of making âbad artâ and how we can actually enjoy the creative moments we get, even if we donât know what weâre making or when weâll get to relax and make something again.
