… that is, if it’s not too late for that sort of thing.
2014 has been lovely so far. I’ve practically become a hermit. The short days and chilly weather don’t encourage venturing out and about so I’m embracing the introversion, staying cloistered and writing library music ’til the end of the month.
The tail end of 2013 saw a new bathroom, a stressful endeavour but necessary, which meant an enforced break from work as the plumbers and tilers ripped out the old and installed the new, and then the week between Xmas and new year I instigated a paperless system for my office/studio space, using an ancient scanner and Evernote. I treated myself to a cross-cutting shredder. Living the dream.
So whilst I continue to revel in this bubble of loveliness and have nothing further to report… here are a few intriguing articles that crossed my path in the last few weeks…
This column will change your life: Triple Constraints
To summarise Oliver’s article on ‘Triple Constraints’: As in work, so in life, “you can have it fast, cheap or good. Pick two.”
We creatives scupper ourselves at the first hurdle by offering all three on a regular basis, especially at the start of our careers. Perhaps this is a necessity and there’s no other way to get credits and experience? I certainly did it, a lot. But perhaps the work wasn’t that good! I stopped offering all three a few years back after a pretty dire session of burnout. To be fair, the premise still stood: even though for the clients, the work was cheap, I paid in terms of my mental and physical health. There’s always a tradeoff, even if you want to avoid it – I think that’s Oliver’s point.
In other areas of life, triple constraints abound, says Ben Casnocha, an instigation for the above article:
If You’re Hot and Smart You Can’t Be…
John and I agreed that at least we were hot and smart, if not mentally stable.
The comments to this article led me here:
Laugh, Kookaburra by David Sedaris:
“A lady named Pat describes life as a four-burner trade off [in the UK we call them hobs…] “One burner represents your family, one is your friends, the third is your health, and the fourth is your work.” The gist, she said, was that in order to be successful you have to cut off one of your burners. And in order to be really successful you have to cut off two.”
It’s scary how true this is, but then there’s always this advice…
Again from Oliver Burkeman (his column is excellent), a commentary on a new book (The 12 Week Year) positing this rather lovely notion…
I do rather like that ‘clean slate’ feeling you get at the start of the new year-that any mistakes made previously can be learned from then summarily dismissed to the mists of time. Starting that fresh really does give you a little mental boost, so why not get it more often rather than through the arbitrary 365 day schedule imposed on us by the Romans (and the path of the Earth around the sun). The book suggests a 12 week pattern (though I think this is rather arbitrary too and can be tailored to fit anyone’s schedule – mine generally works in 4 or 8 week groups). I also really like the idea of a week off quarterly, though I’m not sure how practical it is. But there’s a logic to it, as I always work better after time off. The subconscious really does get to work on new and interesting ideas during time off (just make sure there’s a way to note them when they bubble up as the subconscious doesn’t always work to one’s predefined schedule).
So what if we cut off two of Pat’s burners from the Kookaburra article, but just for our 12-week year? And then pick the other two for the next one? Or overlap it, say, ‘burners’ 1&2, 2&3, 3&4 etc?
Admittedly, I’d be surprised to find that any of us don’t do this anyway by necessity. Some projects require all your strength and focus, and health and friends inevitably get put on the back burner… but then at the end of it you don’t want to look at another script or score or computer screen and a big blow out with your mates followed by a yoga/juice health kick really does soothe the soul. But it’s quite nice to deliberately codify it like this.
So here’s to the new year. May it find you inspired, challenged and fulfilled, whichever burner you choose to concentrate on. And don’t forget to celebrate a new new year on 1st April…
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On a completely separate note, how awesome is Veganuary turning out to be? Simple concept, people volunteer to go vegan for a month; the focus is on health and exciting food. Not too late to jump in. 🙂