Get Everything Done

I was quite excited about going back to the Studio today. I go Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and felt by now I had the system more or less running.

I had a very busy day, without feeling any strain, as I only did things I wanted to, and stopped when I felt like it. One thing I found was that time keeping was easier. There was less emotional charge to stopping at the SWEET time (thank you, Mark) and marking my place in the AF list for continuing later.

Surprisingly, I did not do much composing. At the start of the day there was music in my mind, so I quickly got that into the computer (one does not put such things to the bottom of the last page!)

Thereafter, however, intuition made me do unexpected things. I designed a cover sheet for a full score that does not need to be delivered for several weeks. I spent some time adjusting margin settings in the page layout. Amazingly I spent a long time fixing a timer program whose alarm did not sound on my laptop (it turned out to be Windows registry settings). This is a timer which sounds more and more frequently as the countdowns nears its end, and I use it all the time at home, but I would not normally have fixed it.

I'm hoping the intuitive system will also encourage as much composing as normal, otherwise I will use the scheduling method.

Meanwhile I will adopt the same approach as today when I go there tomorrow, and am looking forward to it.

Laurence, I am a writer working on a novel I have been working on for years. Literally. I think of having to force discipline upon myself, that it all boils down to just that. I have had some success with a book a few years ago, and somehow froze up after that success. I froze up while writing my successful book but literally forced myself through it....and kind of felt like I can never do anything that hard again. I have always thought that there had to be a better way, a way that worked with the way I was wired, whatever that was. I think I have ADD, am distractable, work on a lot of levels at once, have some ferocious, undeterable inner guidance system. find it difficult to work with an imposed structure (though I can sometimes force myself to and have). Now with AF, I flip right over into FLOW. Like almost immediately. This system works with ME, not the other way around. Stuff flows out of me and I am getting around the usual resistance somehow and I realize now that I would never ever come up with enough DISCIPLINE to structure myself enough to get anything really done. Now I feel like the artist I am and feel hope for the first time in years. I too am doing strange things in my studio like you are, but very very important things nonetheless, but it is surprising to me. I approach things I would never be able to gear myself up for, even with a timer set for 5 minutes and work on them in a state of flow for a pretty long time. I wonder where all this will lead for me? But I am hopeful and excited about my life in a way I have not been in a really long time. Thank you, Mark Forster.

Mark F says "Anything which can help creative people be more creative must be good!". I'm not so sure.

I recognise that AF is still being beta tested and it may be premature to reach any conclusions about it. Certainly, I am getting more things ticked off my list.

However, I continue to have a misgiving about it. What I think has been discovered here is a way of getting quickly and reliably into a state of flow. By that, I mean a condition of immersion in the task or tasks at hand, from which it is hard to be distracted, and which gives the subjective impression of achievement and creativity.

It's something much written about and much sought after. The trick seems to be to attain a glimpse of an accomplishment that places it at the same time just out of reach, but nevertheless attainable, as when an engineer has the intuition that an breakthrough is imminent, but has to write out the details of the design.

So many people have written about how to get into this elusive flow state that to offer a way of bringing it dependably to the masses is a major breathrough. However, I'm not perfectly certain that the impression of getting a lot done is well founded. My degree is in computer science, so I know from experience that it's common to enter a flow state when developing software. But does the software bring an end to world hunger? Does it even get used by a customer? Just because you felt overwhelmingly creative as you produced something doesn't mean that it will have any long term value. I can't tell you how many elegant systems I've developed that never served any useful purpose. And while one was in that flow state, one repelled all distractions, and neglected opportunities to do other things that might have had a higher payback.

When in the flow state, one feels unconstrained and productive. When not in that state, one can feel obstructed and unmotivated. But to move from that starting point to say that getting oneself into the flow state is unambiguously good is a leap further than I can make.

I agree that I hung them on a remark that was perhaps too slight for the load, but these were points I wanted to raise anyway. Are the gains from AF that I and others are reporting real or imaginary? Are they sustainable and enduring? Is it the Hawthorne effect at work? Time will tell, I suppose.

To respond to David's question, when working on creative art, one does not do it for a payback, one works to one's own standards, and the approval of others, while agreeable should it transpire, is neither here not there. I speak for myself, but perhaps for others here too.

In fact, those of us who dedicate part of their week to art generally pay a price, but it's worth it.

So if Mark's system (itself a work of art) boosts my creativity, I am delighted.

This morning, I had computer problems which delayed me getting started with my art, but AF provided a series of tasks which meant that no time was wasted in the interim.

I'm now starting to cycle back through the first lists for the third time, and they are getting whittled down. Again I find myself doing unexpected things (all of them useful and somewhat in advance of when they will be needed), but I can see that the system will have me focusing more and more on writing the music. So I'm hoping I will not need to force things by scheduling hours for composition - this will become clear by the end of the month.

The system also had me take an afternoon walk, not my usual working activity!

I stopped at exactly the SWEET time, in mid task (= "Compose"), and I have bookmarked that to continue with next Tuesday morning.

Again I finished the day feeling refreshed, and consider it well worth continuing the trial.

The only thing I missed today was reading this forum. It's just as well there is no Internet access at the Studio. (One of my reasons for going there!!)

Hi David

Certainly for me the level of productivity and the "feelings" generated by AF are equivalent to "being in the flow" as referenced by a myriad of writers. However my opinion is that experiencing the intuitive nature of AF or "being in the flow" if you want to call it that, is a completely different experience to being totally immersed in a task to the exclusion of anything else. I think we are all capable of that but generally only for things we really enjoy doing, whether those are work or leisure activities. This is completely different in that it is a state of mind where you are able to achieve things you know need to be done without resistance. Where items still have resistance, the very fact that they take us out of that "state" is what prompts us to consider why.

Will it last - Mark has found that it has for him. For me I have NEVER found a system that has worked consistently for as long as it has - and believe me I have looked! However the proof of the pudding as they say - I guess the answer is to check back on the forum in a few months and see what people are saying then

Hi everybody, Well after posting that amazing post where I was in the flow state all day, I never found it again. I have been clanking along and finally just bagged the whole thing and tried about 3 other systems I have used before..and today was sooo not getting anything done and so at wits end, then suddenly have run back to AF in desperation and relief. I am heading out to the movies and will post more later.

Hi Trish - just stick with it - it'll work out. I know that feeling, it's what I'd done so many times before with other systems. It was probably your rational mind saying "noooo this is too simple - it can't work - I need to decide" It's often only after going back to what didn't work that we realise that relief of something that we instinctively know to be the key ........

I procrastinated on a few things this week and I really felt it - the moment I went back to my lists I felt like the fish back in water!!

Hope you enjoyed the movies?

Hi Trish

Liked your posts, just to say that in the arts I think one needs utter will power. I've found that the early stages of using AF have involved a lot of tasks to increase production capacity - e.g. the hours I've spent on template design (which I would not otherwise have done) will serve me well in the future. So far my creative output has been below pre-AF levels, but my studio list now has two inactive pages out of six, and seems to be focusing me more on the essential work. I have dismissed some attractive activities which in truth I do not feel like studying right now (e.g. jazz piano).

On the will power side, have you read "The War of Art" by Pressfield?