Procrastination Most of us know procrastination. Gets in the way and stops us from doing things.
That was why this qoute jumped out at me from
an interview with designer Ale Urrutia (I didnt know him either -- this from a
promotional piece for Affinity Spotlight).
Designer Ale Urrutia: 'I've always been an observer'Quote// Q: How do you approach the start of a new project? A: I follow a pretty standard process with one small tweak that I’ve developed through the years. I tend to procrastinate and not jump straight into a project as soon as it starts. I purposely delay the beginning of the work for planning, concept and design.
I believe that disconnecting from the process at an early stage allows me to digest the initial findings and think at a more subconscious level. I’ve found that the procrastination stage often leads to good ideas and solutions. It sometimes also leads to tight deadlines!
The process looks like this:
1. Research,
4. Design,
2.
Procrastinate, 3. Plan,
5. Evaluate,
6. Iterate if necessary.
//End-quoteThat really struck me:
the idea of procrastination as part of a creative process. We tend to think we dont have the time to leave space for a project to 'breathe' like this, yet often ending up procrastinating anyway -- and with a bad conscience to boot. How about if we allow for a certain amount, and see it in a different light?
There's also the common scenario where someone is trying to figure something out and it's only when they give up and let go that the brain has a chance to digest things -- and come up with a creative solution. Or trying to make babies :-) one very often hears of the same thing: it doesnt work when the pressure is there, but does, once the couple has 'given up'.
I scrawled this somewhere lately:
Wisdom is often about realising that you're being stupid, and stopping that.So if you're someone who (unsuccessfully?) gives yourself a hard time about procrastination, maybe there is a different approach out there. I haven't figured it out for me yet, but do feel like I'm making progress over the years -- there probably isn't a simple solution to too much distraction / consuming / procrastination -- but stopping giving myself a hard time about it is/was a first step for me.
