In the preceding post of this series, I discussed the benefits simplicity has on mental clarity, contentment, and creativity.
A minimalistic approach to life makes you more present, and thus receptive to insight. And just like with simplicity itself, organizing your space and time lightens the extraneous (unnecessary) cognitive load immensely.
Organizing your notes, digital files, music library, etc., prevents having to allocate precious time and mental energy to searching for them, and these resources can then be used for more constructive endeavors.
A decluttered work space or living quarters makes it easier to get down to work, stay on task, and generate novel insights because there’s less distractions on your mental and physical periphery.
Keeping with that theme, a structured daily routine with distinct timeframes allotted to particular activities removes any internal debate about how to occupy your day, and time/brainpower spent resisting or rationalizing against effort.
However, you must also have flexibility within structure. There will be times when the creative spirit appears. Of course, you can jot down your ideas to revisit later, as many do. But you would be wise to drop what you’re doing and follow it—lest lose that spark of an idea and the feeling you had in that moment (authenticity) forever.
For me, this is particularly true of when insights arise at night. Despite not wanting to open the Notes app on my phone when trying to doze off and subject myself to the light stimulation and frustration with the dictation feature, the truth is, I’m likely to be more agitated and have difficulty falling asleep because of anxiety over losing the gist of the idea if I postponed it until morning.
Thus, I’ll try to at least capture the thought in one breviloquent sentence, but more often than not I end up picking my phone back up to add more supporting evidence, as I tend to be more lucid in the hours before bed. It’s an unwinnable game, because that’s when I most want to avoid stimulation (visual, mental), but also when I have the most mental clarity.
In this sense, when creativity strikes is the one instance when I’m not a “good” mindfulness practitioner, i.e., willing to let thoughts arise and fall. Even if I’m in the middle of practice, I will take a pause after that form to at least jot down the idea, but often will get to work on it because I know the flow won’t be the same if I defer it for later.
Up next – Part V: Effort and Proactivity
Conscious Consumption 