Nov

Do you know your creative breaking point?

Scene: My living room, last night. Me and my husband on the couch, he’s watching tv and I’m working on my laptop.

“ARGH!” I yelled at my computer. “What stinking piece of code do I need to change to get this to work?!”
My husband looked at me like I was crazy, “honey, why don’t you just put it away for the night and relax. It will go better if you give it a break.”
I looked at him and thought, “what does he know?” but said “Just give me 10 more minutes, I swear I can figure it out.” 10 minutes later, I was still just as frustrated and had somehow changed every piece of text to italic, yet I couldn’t find a single broken <em> code anywhere. I exhaled a huge breath and muttered ‘screw you code. Screw you.’
When he heard that, he took my computer from my lap, clicked save on the document and closed the top. “Honey, you really shouldn’t work past your limit, working at breaking point does no good for anyone.”
…Sometimes he gets things so right on it amazes me (and helps me come up with great posts)!

What he made me realize was I had reached my limit probably an hour ago, but because I’m so stubborn, I kept working. And, even though I was working, I wasn’t getting much done (in fact I messed up a section of code so bad I couldn’t figure out what I did). The reality is, we all do it. We’ve all worked until we are too frustrated and exhausted to make positive changes to the project we are working on. We do it because many of us don’t know that we have reached our limit until we have gone too far. Now, I barely know my limit, let alone am able to tell you yours. I can tell you, creativity seems to fit a curve:

The closer you get to your breaking point, the worse your creativity levels and the less beneficial you are to your project. So, the next time you are feeling frustrated with a project, take a step back and see if you’ve reached your breaking point.

Category: Business & Marketing Strategy, Graphic & Website Design, Wright Point of View

Topics: Business & Marketing Strategy, notes from my hubby, Wright Point of View

http://TornadoMktg.com/blog Adrianne Machina
Oh, I soooo related to this post! I can’t tell you how many times I have been on that couch fuming at the lack of cooperation from my laptop.
I try to remind myself that Albert Einstein came up with most of his most brilliant work while day-dreaming at his boring job as a patent clerk. Sometimes all it takes is a short walk around the block, a shower, or 5-minutes of deep-breathing to re-boot my brain and find the answer.
Keep up the good posts!
Adrianne Machina
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catholland
I'm so right there with you! I totally work past my limit. Sometimes you just want to beat the code into submission. It gets personal! I'm also often the victim of the five-more-minutes-that-turns-into-an-hour syndrome.
I have, however, found that sleeping on it can be effective every now and then.I can't tell you how many I've solved a coding or javascript problem, or even written entire article,s in my sleep. (Is that weird?) Of course, it doesn't always work — usually when I count on it most. Murphy's Law, right.
(BTW, I'm trying to keep up the comment challenge. (http://wrightcreativity.com/2010/02/im-really-b…) How are you doing with that?
Anonymous
I’m so right there with you! I totally work past my limit. Sometimes you just want to beat the code into submission. It gets personal! I’m also often the victim of the five-more-minutes-that-turns-into-an-hour syndrome. nnI have, however, found that sleeping on it can be effective every now and then.I can’t tell you how many I’ve solved a coding or javascript problem, or even written entire article,s in my sleep. (Is that weird?) Of course, it doesn’t always work — usually when I count on it most. Murphy’s Law, right. nn(BTW, I’m trying to keep up the comment challenge. (http://wrightcreativity.com/2010/02/im-really-bad-at-commenting/) How are you doing with that?
Puppies for Sale
Actually I am not still clear of this. I need to make some research for this. So, I have to gather some information on it. I will do it in a short time.
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Do you know your creative breaking point?