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Is Less Really More in Creative Work?

12/4/2015

2 Comments

 
365 artwork a day project
Series of pieces produced during 365 artwork-a-day © Cherry Jeffs 2011

Less is more, or so the saying goes. But what if the reverse were true?

​What if, in terms of creative work, more could also mean less?

​I've been pondering on this question ever since I read a post by Katie aka The Wellness Mama on Copyblogger earlier in the week in which she describes writing her almost-daily blogposts in an hour.

An hour?

This is a level of productivity I can only dream of.
​

Does having a shorter window make you more efficient?

Yet Katie is the mother of five children - the oldest of which is seven - whom she homeschools.

Despite - or perhaps because of these intensive responsibilities - she manages to write four to five blogposts a week (and cook three meals a day from scratch).

Given that I can easily spend five hours a week writing two blogposts, (lately I've cut back to one precisely because two take up too much time), it seems that by having such a regular blogging routine, Katie is actually saving time!

I'm reminded of the year when I created 365 pieces of art, essentially one each day.

It's the most prolific I've ever been and I can't help thinking that the necessity of finishing a piece of art in a short time every day made me a lot more efficient with my process.

No time for umming and ahhing when you only have an hour at the easel!

Tasks really do seem to expand to fill the time available, so committing to a regular and very strict timescale may, in the long run, actually save us time.

​Or at least give us relatively more value for the same time.
​

Might more sometimes mean less?

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments.

​

© Author: Cherry Jeffs



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2 Comments
Nela link
27/4/2015 03:37:05 am

5 hours for two posts? That sounds like a dream to me! :)
I tend to spend more that that on one post, given the drafting, editing and creating images, and the fact my posts are usually over the 2000 word mark.

I suppose if I needed to create one post in the little time I had it would save time, but at what cost?
I love Seth Godin's brief daily posts, but that's just not me.

Maybe I could experiment and try writing a post a day for a set number of days, but I feel too overwhelmed as it is...

Reply
Cherry Jeffs link
27/4/2015 07:53:45 am

The last thing I want is for you to be more overwhelmed, Nela! How often and how long is something each of us have got to decide for ourselves. There is no one size fits all solution. My posts are generally about 800 words and if they look like they will be longer than that, I usually split them into two. I aspire to being even more succinct though! I'm in a bit of a paring-down moment in my life right now ;)

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