The Benefits of Time-Boxing for Creativity

One of the most difficult struggles for a film composer, writer, or artist of any kind is developing the discipline to work. Especially if being an artist is your full time job, there is a dangerous trap in having an entire day wide open in front of you. With no meetings, no appointments, no deadlines, and no one looking over your shoulder, it becomes very easy to procrastinate."I have all day to write this piece, so it won't matter if I go to the grocery store now. Some coffee would be good, and oh yea I have some calls to make." Before you know it, you've spent your entire day on "important" non-creative tasks and didn't manage to get any creative work done.So what can you do?One of the first important principles is to do your most important work first. Wether it's a three minute cue, a new arrangement, or mixing a song to send to a client, whatever your most critical task of the day is needs to happen before anything else. The moment you start pushing this task later into the day, the less likely it is to occur.But what I've found to be even more helpful is the concept of time-boxing. Also known by names like The Pomodoro Technique, time-boxing is a simple method for getting a lot of work done.You simply set a timer, and for that much time you are allowed to do nothing but work on your creative project. When the timer is up, you take a short break.The amount of time to set is a personal choice, but you need it to be a balance. Short enough that it feels like an easy challenge (can you really not focus for just 20 minutes?), and long enough to be able to actually make a dent (three minutes is probably not enough time to get going).Personally I like 25 minutes of work, plus a 5 minute break before diving back in.The break is a critical element and should not be ignored. Even if you are in a great flow when the timer goes off, I encourage you to force yourself to take the beak. Otherwise you risk burning out during the next session. The most effective breaks usually involve getting out of your chair and moving around. Even if you just want to check your e-mail during your break, do it standing up to keep your blood flowing!It may seem too simple and silly to really work, but trust me that it does. Also if you're a Mac user, check out the software Concentrate. Not only does it take care of the timers for you, you can set it to block certain applications while you're working. This allows me to block Chrome so that I can't "just check my e-mail real quick" during a work period, but have to wait for the break.