It is common practice to outline a schedule of work to do in advance. Whatever is next on the list is what you try to tackle, regardless of the mood or state of mind you are in. Some days, this works wonderfully, and you enter into a flow state. Other days, it feels like you are trying to lead a team of pack mules uphill through deep mud.
As a creative, it is a mistake to fight against your current mental state by trying to force particular work. Instead, adapt your work to fit your current state of mind.
Your mental state influences how much energy it takes you to finish a given piece of work. When you are in alignment with your current mood, tasks can feel effortless to complete. Misalignment can cause them to take longer, be more painful to execute, and result in a lower quality output.
Of course, you don’t have to rely purely on your mental state. You can also generate momentum intentionally, making it easier to enter into a flow state.
States of Mind
In his Just-in-Time Project Management series, Tiago Forte provides some examples of states of mind and work that benefits from it:
Note that each of these states favors a certain kind of activity, which produces a unique kind of value:
- Mischievous cleverness would be good for hacking a piece of software to do what you want
- Geeking out is good for late night projects tinkering in the garage
- Appalled incredulity can inspire wonderful reserves of anger and motivation toward a goal
- Righteous indignation is very useful for writing passionate thought pieces arguing for a change you care about
- Melancholy has long been used by artists to tap into deep reserves of creativity
- Motivated curiosity is great for exploring a rabbit trail through Wikipedia to try and understand an idea
The problem is that creating these states of mind is often expensive and difficult. You might require long periods of waiting, investment in rituals, or working in a particular environment. They are also unpredictable, and can come and go at moment’s notice. Even worse, attempting to force a particular mental state often pushes you further and further away from it. Because we cannot produce states of mind at will, it is better to adapt your current work to your state of mind.
References
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Extend Your Mind by Tiago Forte:
Our moods are extrapolation engines, putting us in the appropriate state of mind to take advantage of fleeting opportunities, without having to wait for full information. You can think of a given state of mind as a temporary bias, increasing our sensitivity and responsiveness toward a certain kind of reward that seems to be in unexpected abundance.
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Just-in-Time Project Management (Series) by Tiago Forte
I believe that our states of mind have become our most important assets as knowledge workers. In an economy based on creativity, it is the state of mind that we enter through our creative process that is even more rare and valuable than any product or deliverable we produce while in it. Our ultimate competitive advantage is a way of thinking.
Because of this, it is worth designing a way of working that puts us in certain states of mind as often and for as long as possible, and leverages what we produce during that time into tangible results.
Let’s start with a definition for “state of mind.” A SOM is:
- difficult or expensive to reproduce (in contrast to simple emotions)
- illegible and more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts (in contrast to cause-and-effect habits)
- primarily somatic and affective, not intellectual (in contrast to belief systems or worldviews)
- temporary and ephemeral (in contrast to mindsets or attitudes)
There are a few important things to understand about states of mind. They are:
- Expensive
- Unpredictable
- Valuable
- High leverage
States of mind give us tremendous leverage, because they dramatically influence how much energy it takes to complete a given task. When you’re in Errand Mode, running an additional errand doesn’t take much extra energy. But if you’re in the middle of a deep focus session, even the simplest errand can feel like a harsh imposition.
Motivation has a direction. Performing a task in line with your motivation is easy and satisfying (reading a book when I’m feeling quiet and introspective), whereas trying to go against my motivation is difficult and frustrating (reading a book when I’m feeling social or scatterbrained).
In other words, moods drive us to act opportunistically – to do more of what’s already working. Our brain extrapolates that what has just happened will keep happening, forms expectations of the rewards it will encounter, generating anticipation, which is the key motivator of action.
Instead of trying to force our state of mind to fit the task at hand, we can change the task at hand to fit our state of mind.
