I've Been Thinking About...Creating versus Consuming

And how we should create more than we consume. Easy for me to say, right?

Photo by Tamas Pap on Unsplash

I’ve been thinking about creating versus consuming.

Last week, I had a hard time writing and I spent a lot of time reading reaction to the election. On Friday, I went to PT (physical therapy) and told my therapist, Becky, that all of a sudden I felt like my body had gone backwards. It was full of pain. I’ve been working with her for the past year (Friday was actually my graduation day) on various body parts. One of the things we’ve been working on is shoulder pain. It’s been going really well. I’ve been doing my physical exercises and my mental ones (which involve telling my shoulder how much I love it, how I appreciate how hard it’s working, how we’re moving from pain level seven to pain level two) and the pain was much less severe. My progress has been huge. But all of a sudden, in the middle of the night on Thursday, I was in terrible pain from my shoulder. And not only that, my knee pain flared up. After knee replacement surgery a year ago, I haven’t felt pain in it for months. Suddenly all my body parts hurt again, and I was discouraged.

“It’s stress,” Becky replied. “Every single patient I’ve I’ve seen in the last few days has said the same thing.”

Ohhhh, of course. I was stressed from the election. But I realized I was also stressed because I had been consuming way more that I had been creating. And I’m not talking about eating too much here. I realized that it wasn’t only that my body was full of everything I had consumed all week last week, causing stress and pain. It was my brain as well.

My brain felt like this last week. Photo by Carles Rabada on Unsplash

I try to follow the rule to create first, consume after. It’s been my habit for years to get up, grab my coffee and go write. In some periods, I’m writing morning pages, in others, I work on my current fiction project. When I do this, I’m happy. My day goes more smoothly. I’m more productive and less cranky.

Much as I’d like to claim I do, it doesn’t mean that I do it every day. Most many days, but not all. Sometimes I need to be up and out for an appointment (though I do try to avoid this). But let’s be honest, some days I just make the mistake of looking at my inbox first. And my inbox is crammed with dozens of fascinating things, these days mostly newsletters from fellow Substackers.

But I hadn’t been doing this. Over the last week, I said I was going to get up and write. I told myself that I would. But instead I got up and snuck a glance at my computer. I’ll get to my writing as soon as I finish reading this on article, I’d tell myself But then I’d read another. Then another. And before I knew it, consuming had engulfed my creating time.

I tell myself I’m a writer, I need information for my work. Input¹ is also one of my highest qualities on the Gallup Strengths Finder report. So, it’s a requirement that I read, research, and gather information like a fiend, right? Well, um, yeah, sort of. But maybe not first thing in the morning, when my brain is at its most malleable, before the cares of the world have taken root in it.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the past week. How so we consistently make creating over consuming your priority? Most mornings, I am able to do it. And let’s be clear here: I am a person who is extremely unorganized with my time, though I’m retraining myself to think of it as flexible. (Haha.) I don’t like being boxed into a schedule, even for something as important as working on a novel. I’ve tried to be firm and diligent about keeping to a schedule and so far I haven’t made it work. For one, I rebel against myself. For two, the way my mind works I sometimes get a hot idea for a post when I’m working on my novel and I have to go work on it. (Please do not take this part of the post as advice on how you should proceed.)

This could be my desk. Photo by Wonderlane on Unsplash

But despite these propensities, I do have a dedicated writing time first thing in the morning, and I’ve kept this up 95% of the time for years. When I think about it, I think it’s because of intention and planning. And I have a couple other ideas for you, too:

Intention

Sometimes, often even, my morning work sessions are the only time I have to devote to my fiction writing. The rest of the day gets filled with my “real” work of coaching and teaching and evaluating. (One of the reasons I’m constantly attempting to schedule my fiction writing time in during the day is to elevate it to loftier “real” work status.) Thus, I have a strong inclination and intention to get as much done as I can early in the day.

Planning

Decide ahead of time what you’re going to work on. I often write by hand in the morning, so I’ll make sure my notebook and pen is on top of one of the piles on my messy desk and the lid of the laptop is closed. If you’re typing, close your email inboxes and news sites (or maybe you are a normal human who does not leave thirty tabs open on your computer, unlike me) so you’re not tempted. Make sure what you want to work on is ready to go.

Pull yourself back

You will fail in this endeavor, I guarantee. You will sneak over and peek at your email or open a news site. But you don’t have to stay there and doom scroll. You can remind yourself what you’re doing and go back to your writing.

Meet yourself where you are

And this may be the most important point of all. By this I mean create what’s juicy for you in the moment. My desire is to make progress on my fiction WIP each morning. But some days I need to vent in morning pages. Others I may have a hot idea for a Substack post and work on that instead. I used to not be able to do this. It was work on my novel or nothing. I’d get mad at myself for not being on for fiction writing and give up and go answer email. But something, some kind of creating, is better than nothing. Because nothing in my case is too often going through email or looking at yarn and stitching sites. Or worse, the news. (But I’m desperately trying to lessen how much I do that now.)

And one more thing

These tips apply to getting to your writing session whenever you schedule want to do it. If the thought of getting up early to write gives you the johnnies (I just made that up so as not to use the word “willies” as a cliche there), then find a nothing time that works for you. But whatever you do, don’t sacrifice your creating time for consuming.

Okay, so, yeah, these “I’ve Been Thinking” posts were intended as quick hits of writing advice. But I am apparently incapable of writing short. So go figure. Hope this is helpful anyway. And now—quit reading and go write!

1. Some tidbits from the Gallup input explanation: “It’s very likely that you read to stimulate your already active mind. You examine new ideas and unfamiliar points of view. You are quite naturally a lifelong student…You regard the printed word as a gateway to a vast world of new ideas. Your quest to interpret events, grasp facts, or understand concepts appears limitless. Frequently you read to broaden your perspective on very familiar, as well as altogether unfamiliar, topics.” This helps to explain why I go down rabbit holes so often. But it’s also a convenient excuse for procrastination.