Dear Crayola, A Plea for Productivity

You can’t imagine how much productivity is lost through crayon inefficiencies. The problem is so bad that my coworker’s son, Owen, posted a plea on his Facebook page asking Crayola for help.

“Dear Crayola,

I think you should make a color called blue white swirl. I think you should make blue white swirl because I don't want to keep switching crayons when coloring the sky and clouds. I feel the same way when coloring an ocean with icebergs. And I feel the same way when coloring Penn State stuff.

You may not think it's that bad, but I think it takes too long to switch back and forth between crayons.”

Owen is a busy writer, artist, musician and structural engineer. That's a roller coaster in the background that he has been building in the living room for the past 6 weeks. His mom has given the construction crew a July 1 completion deadline.

Is there hope?
Maybe Crayola will hear Owen’s plea, and we can all save tremendous amounts of time when we have a sky to color. But what will we do with our new-found free time? Fill up again with something else?

True productivity goes beyond the capacity to check more things off your to-do-list. It is the productivity you find when you simplify your life. It is the productivity of entering “the zone” on a project you really care about. It is the productivity you feel when your life is in perfect balance, if only for a moment.

There are two blogs that I find really helpful in refocusing my energies on healthy productivity.

Zen Habits
Zen Habits is a blog by Leo Babauta, writer, husband and father of six. As he puts it “ Zen Habits is about finding simplicity in the daily chaos of our lives. It’s about clearing the clutter so we can focus on what’s important, create something amazing, and find happiness.

Productive Flourishing
Productive Flourishing is written by Charlie, a former philosophy professor and a logistics officer in the Army National Guard. His blog talks about the art of meaningful action that he describes as that sweet spot between incessant daydreaming and mindless doing.

What are you favorite ways to move from assembly line productivity to something that truly feeds your soul?

Love at Sea

Living a Double Life

Some days I feel like a superhero hiding a secret identity, minus the superpowers, cool gadgets, and nifty lair.

By day, I am Marie Young, bespectacled mild mannered writer, working with an amazing creative team at Penn State. By night, I am Young Creative, artist and small business owner.

My story isn’t unique. Many creative people lead a double life. We work 40+ hours in our “real job” and then put in more hours nurturing our creative baby. Some of you even throw real babies into the mix. Amazing!

Working full-time while you pursue your creative passion is exhausting. Both jobs need your full attention, and yet you can’t neglect your family, health, or happiness either. Since I can’t create more hours in the day, I have to find ways to pep up productivity. Here are a few of my favorites:

Know your creative clock.

Mornings are my most creative time. By evening my brain cells are dying off. That’s good news for my day job, not so good news for my creative baby that is relegated to the night shift.

To minimize the creative drop off, I try to set aside Saturday morning for major creative undertakings and use the evenings to do more task-oriented things that don’t require as much thought.

Take time to make time.

Set aside time to plan for the upcoming week. What do you want to do? What supplies do you need to do it? When you are stressed you forget things. If everything is written down, you have a better chance of getting it all done.

Do something that matters.

This is really hard. Everything about the creative process is seductive. I love reading inspiring magazines, visiting artist forums, looking at eye-candy. There are so many rabbit holes to slip though. I have to remind myself, “You can’t have sales without products.”

Oh, that’s right. No products, no sales. I really should go and finish some inventory.