Our art carries the intention to serve a purpose, but sometimes we try too hard and the art becomes lost in translation. Incidentally, we find our ourselves expanding the effort/work to fill that established time frame. Overplan and overcommit to completing a task within a certain period of time and you suddenly find yourself unproductive.

Another issue with the strategy isn’t that there is an agenda or a plan to completion, but rather the only accountability available is a loosely imposed time constraint. The effective, productive, approach is when we operate without inhibition. To achieve that we need self-imposed limitation.

Remove flexibility, remove comfort, and ultimately remove the ‘safety net’.

Why? The more restrictions and limitations, the more we stimulate and push our creative self.

Here are a few not so obvious ways to lessen comfort and increase discomfort: 

• Remove the charging cable from the laptop.
• Work in a place that closes at a specific time and then set your goals accordingly.
• Have a goal to try and finish something 3 hours sooner than originally planned.
• Pretend that the people you are surrounded by are holding you accountable.
• If the work doesn’t require the use of the internet, turn off your wifi.
• Imagine work as a performance piece and not just ‘doing work’.