Productivity ≠ Creativity.
Musings over life, work, and everything in between.
Hi friends,
How have you been? I have been quite elated.
This week, the 12th of August to be precise, we at PFA won the Bronze Prize in the Linktree Passion Fund. To be named one of the top 30 communities globally is the greatest feat we have ever achieved. Platform For Artists, since its inception in 2017 has always worked towards creating an equitable space that enables artists across the country to collaborate and explore their creativity. We passionately believed in the creator movement. We did everything in our power to empower this diverse community and create an inclusive space where everyone could belong and feel represented. Though it sounds so clean and precise, the path was full of hurdles. There wasn’t a single day in these 3.5 years when we weren’t doubtful about ourselves, our capabilities, our successes, our failures. The only thing that we were certain about was the cause, the vision.
After the win, I was overwhelmed. I could see my entire entrepreneurial journey flash before my eyes, all the doubtful evenings, sleepless nights, morning meetings, every little detail. I could make sense of things from a new perspective. Things I henceforth held to be counter-productive turned out to be blessings in disguise. And I was instantly reminded of Steve Jobs, “You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
And so I started to reflect on my work ethic, my understanding of creativity, my relationship with this community, and so I am writing this newsletter to deconstruct what work means to me and what I have made out of it over the years learning from experiences and people around me.
Firstly, I am a perfectionist so I have struggled quite a bit in my early years to finish a creative project, publish a piece of content, I still struggle but not quite as much. Striving for perfection is a great trait, but you must know when to stop. Otherwise, it’s an endless pit, you just keep getting engrossed in the creative process and you are never satisfied because there’s always room for improvement. Also, one must realize that a creative piece of work is never “complete”, it is always ‘work under progress’, but you have to stop working on it at some point in time and let it out in the world.
Finishing projects is part of what it means to deliver high-quality work. It's not high quality if your perfectionism prevents you from finishing.
James Clear
In today’s hustle culture, people are sometimes too blinded by productivity. Fortunately, I realized the need of balancing creativity and productivity quite early on in my career. I treat my work as a bicycle, which runs efficiently only when the tyres of productivity and creativity are functioning in sync.
The price of productivity is creativity.
Naval
David Perell in one of his recent mini-essay used the analogy of Coffee and Bear.
He says, “Beer mode is a state of unfocused play where you discover ideas, and coffee mode is a state of focus where you work towards a specific outcome.” I don’t think any other analogy fits my way of work better than this. I am in my coffee mode on weekday mornings; I get things done, check off things, coordinate, and implement, basically all things productive and “useful”. But on evenings and especially on weekends, I am in my beer mode, casually reading stuff, sitting at a place for hours doing nothing, thinking, goofing around in my house, calling up people, and just chilling with them; basically, all things that seem “unproductive” on the outside, a pure waste of time. But indeed these are the very things that are the ultimate source of my creativity.
![Transcript of The Founders' List: Scott Belsky (Founder of Behance) on "Creativity is The New Productivity" | The NFX Podcast](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9c0234ec-cbe1-4bed-a92c-adcd3d4b5045_2732x2048.jpeg "Transcript of The Founders' List: Scott Belsky (Founder of Behance) on "Creativity is The New Productivity" | The NFX Podcast")
I also believe that Creativity and creative instincts can be cultivated in us. And productivity is the way to do so. I know this sounds paradoxical but hear me out. So just like you get better at any skill when you practice it every day, similarly, creativity can be improved by working at it every day. In fact, if you take a look at the most successful artists of all time you will notice that almost all of them created art in large numbers, most of them are average, most of them are not masterpieces, but they succeeded in creating masterpieces only because they continued to invest in their work with the same intensity every day.
“Creating content is less about new ideas on a random day.
It’s more of a process.
Showing up each day.
Creating content even when we don’t get the muse.
And, listening to the audience about what lights them up.
If we keep on doing it consistently without worrying about it to monetize, the power of compounding will take us places even we couldn’t imagine.
But the universal caveat remains unchanged:
Creativity shows up when we do.”
- Ankur Warikoo
I am a planner, I am also quite organized especially when it comes to my work. I don’t plan meticulously, I keep space for spontaneity and I embrace intuitive decisions. This helps me to remain authentic and adapt when things don’t go as planned.
Not being busy is a competitive advantage.
Most people are so strapped for time they can't take advantage of lucky opportunities or quickly resolve unexpected problems.
Maintain a bias toward action, but leave room for the unexpected.
James Clear
And the last thing, well this might be an unpopular opinion, but I believe in the power of Procrastination. As I said, I am quite well organized, I don’t leave things for the minute but I know this for a fact that sometimes I get the best ideas, the best way to do things only when I am feeling the pressure of the hour, the urgency just somehow pushes out the best of me.
Procrastination is a vice when it comes to productivity but it can be a virtue when it comes to creativity
Naval
And this is not something unique, I have come across many people who function in the same way. And then finally, I stumbled upon this Youtube video one day, and since then my whole perspective about procrastination has changed.
Lastly, I want to end this newsletter by giving you some food for thought. What is work for you? What does creativity mean to you? What do you feel passionate about? Are you passionate enough to continue doing what you do right now for no money or lesser money? I ponder upon these questions sometimes and I would like to know what’s your take on them.
... They say ‘remuneration ought to be proportional to input’, you know the harder you work, the more you should be paid, but I think that’s a very demeaning conception of knowing what work is, what human beings are like and I don’t think it’s true.
Noam Chomsky
What I was Reading this week?
Thank you so much for reading till the end. Do get back to me about those questions I asked. You can reply back to this email or dm me directly on my Instagram @pawan_rochwani. Looking forward to some really interesting conversations.
Also, if you liked this newsletter please consider sharing it in your close circles! See you in the next one.