Does your job leave you full? - On creativity, or the lack of it
Monday, February 7, 2022It just occurred to me, why i havent been that productive. Or why my productivity comes in waves. I thought it was due to laziness, or even a lack of imagination. I have been beating myself up, cursing that I am not more creative and productive. But suddenly it occurred to me. Its all because of my job.
Now, hear me out. Every day, I spend 8 hours thinking up solutions for problems and then implementing those solutions. I have to think creatively, I meet new challenges and I learn to overcome them. I work with my hands; well, mostly my fingers, but you get the point; and all day, my brain is working. So when I get off from work, my brain has been stimulated for 8 hours. It has had its need for creative thinking and problem solving satisfied. Its like when you are full after a great dinner. You dont want more to eat, just the thought of eating more almost makes you pass out. But when you havent eaten for a longer period, you get hungry, and you can eat anything. Your mind conjures up the craziest meals, and you scour the cupboards. You are trying to solve the problem of you being hungry. Its the same thing with the brain. If you dont stimulate it, it will begin to seek out stimulation for itself. That is when creative thinking begins. You have probably noticed that on the weekend, or holiday. You start to get hungry because you havent eaten. I. E. You haven't been stimulated.
So, if you are hungry after you have had dinner, you probably havent had enough. And if your mind is full of new ideas and buzzing when you get off work, your work probably isnt very stimulating. And like when you are full at dinner, there is no shame in leaving a bit on the plate or saying no to an extra round, there is no shame in not being creative or productive after a full day of stimulating work. You are not lazy, your mind is just stimulated.
Notes:
It might sound banal, but when this is actually a thought that I hadnt though of before. It suddenly occured to me. It almost instantly cleared my feelings of guilt. It made me more productive at work, because it now felt more fulfilling, and at home, I also became more productive, because I felt very good about myself all of sudden. As said, it probably sound banal, but it wasnt for me. As with a lot of my other stuff, and one of the reasons why this blog exists, its because I want to help people. And even stuff like this that seems banal, can be profound to someone else, and if they discover this, and it helps them, I am happy.