Creativity is not Efficient

Show Notes

• 
  What you can learn from niche sewing: Episode 69 of Seamwork Radio.


• 
  Ideaflow: By Jeremy Utley and Perry Kiebahn.


• 
  Getting Things Done: By David Allen.


• Design Your Wardrobe


• 
  Podcast listeners get half off an unlimited Seamwork membership when you use this link, plus you get to keep that price as long as you’re a member!



• Tell us your idea for the next icebreakers for makers!

Podcast Transcript

Sarai
I'm Sari.

Haley
And I'm Haley.

Sarai
And this is Seamwork Radio. Welcome back to Seamwork Radio, where we share practical ideas for building a creative process so you can sew with intention and joy.

And today we're talking about three reasons why creativity is not efficient, and we're going to be sharing tips for ways you can lean into those creative moments rather than taking the quick and easy route. All right, let's start with our icebreaker, Haley.

Our ice breaker today. “Have you ever had a dream about sewing or something sewing adjacent? The other night, I dreamt I was taking a yoga class in the middle of a JOANN, laughing, crying emoji.”

That's from Hope. That's a great question, Hope.

Sarai
So. Have you ever had a dream about sewing?

Haley
I mean, so many stress dreams about sewing.

Sarai
Like Project Runway style. You have to finish, and there's one.

Haley
That comes to mind. So, I think I was working on a wedding dress with my friend Rachel. I don't remember exactly but what we were doing, but for some reason, I had been up two nights in a row sewing all night. And so I was, like, incredibly sleep deprived to the point of just being completely delirious. And I finally went to bed, and I crashed at 05:00 p.m. Just like a weird time. And I was having this dream that I was sewing a pair of pants for Prince. For Prince. The Prince the artist formerly known as Prince, Prince.

Sarai
But then he went back to Prince.

Haley
Yeah, but then he went back to Prince. So Prince R-I-P.

I had a dream that I was sewing a pair of purple pants, of course, for Prince. And there was something like a pattern or something that wasn't matching at the seams. And I was, like, panicked about it in my dream. And then flashback out of dream to real life. My friend Rachel calls me. I like, kind of wake up. Wake up enough to answer the phone. And she's like, what are you doing?

I burst into tears, and I'm like, the purple seams on the Prince pants, and it's all messed up. And I thought it was real. I was so sleep deprived that I thought that this was a real life problem.

And she told me, I will never forget. “Haley, I think that you need to make a list of what's stressing you out and then look at it and decide what's real and what's not real.” And I was like, yeah, it's a really good idea. Okay, I have to call you back. Then I like, hang up. And I sit there for a second, and I'm like, wait, what? Purple pants?

Sarai
Where am I?

Haley
Oh, my God. Yeah, I think she ended up coming by my place after that was like, are you okay?

Sarai
You have a psychotic break?

Haley
Yeah, like, what's going on? And I was like, oh, thank you for that suggestion of making a list. It really snapped me out of my straight-up hallucination. So that is like a weird dream hallucination that I had about purple pants for Prince.

Sarai
I would call it a nightmare.

Haley
It was a nightmare. It was bad.

Sarai
I mean, what would be worse than disappointing Prince?

Haley
Yeah, I know. He was still living. This was a while ago now. So scary.

Sarai
Well, you know, he would notice. He would notice any flaws in his pants.

Haley
These purple seams are not matching.

Sarai
I mean, he cared so much about his appearance.

Haley
I'm just, like, imagining him slapping me. Like he slapped Sinéad O’Connor.
Sarai
Oh no.

Haley
Like oh, no. Except I would deserve it.

Sarai
I was just thinking about Sinéad O'Connor this morning. Sorry, this is a tangent. I was just thinking about that time where she tore up a picture of the Pope because of child abuse in the church and how everybody thought she was crazy back then and how she was vilified in the media.

Haley
That was on SNL that she did that, right. Yeah. That was an iconic moment.

Sarai
Yeah. I mean, no matter how you feel about the whole, like, the whole issue, I mean, obviously, nobody is for abuse of children.

Haley
Obviously.

Sarai
You know what I'm saying? I feel like she was ahead of her time and nobody listened.

Haley
Yeah. I was just listening to a cover she did recently.

Sarai
I love her voice.

Haley
She has a great voice.

Sarai
Her voice is amazing.

Haley
She's great. Love the hair. Love the shaved head.

Sarai
Yeah.

Haley
Shaved head icon.

Sarai
Yeah. She's got an incredible voice. Beautiful voice. Anyway, back to the question. I can't really remember, so I don't have a good story like you, Haley. I've had many dreams about sewing that are just your standard run of the mill stress dreams or just incorporate sewing, because I've been doing it all day.

I will say that I had a dream about Conan O'Brien last night because I have been watching so many Conan clips on YouTube right before bed. Like, I am kind of obsessed with Conan at the moment. I always am, but particularly right now, I've just been watching a lot of Conan. But that's the only thing, even though I sewed all day long yesterday, Conan cancels it out.

Haley
Your brain was on Conan.

Sarai
Yeah. As it often is. All right, well, thank you, Hope, for that. Great question. And if you have an icebreaker for us, you can leave it for us. If you're a Seamwork member, just go to Seamwork.com/go/icebreakers and you can leave it there. And we love hearing your icebreaker questions. So please, if you can think of anything you would like us to answer silly like this or not, be sure to leave it for us.

All right, well, today we're talking about creativity and efficiency and the relationship between those two things. So, as we all know, time is such a precious, precious commodity for most of us. Well, for all of us. We all have a limited amount of time that we inadvertently attempt to make everything as efficient as it can be. Well, inadvertently or advertently a lot of times on purpose.

And I think that robs us of creative joy sometimes and just these really important human experiences and fun in life when everything has to be as efficient as possible. So, Haley, what's your relationship with efficiency?

Haley
It's toxic.

Sarai
Yeah, me too.

Haley
I think that it's reared its head more in this culture of working from home because I have less separation between home and personal life, so I don't have that drive home, that intentional moment of pause and reflection where I can get my head into a different space.

Especially right after I'm done working for the day, is where I find myself kind of spinning my wheels and flitting from one task to the next. And I'm like, why am I treating cooking dinner like a race or whatever I'm trying to engage in in that moment? So I think it's just hard, especially now that we're, like so much of our life for a lot of people, myself included, is at home now.

So I think that's kind of where I am with efficiency in this moment.

Sarai
Yeah, I struggle with it, too, a lot. I would say it's one of my top neuroses, is being efficient. And I did not used to be this way, I think, for better or worse. I think there is a book, which is Getting Things Done. When I read Getting Things Done years and years and years ago, it changed my life in both good ways and I think in some not so good ways because I used to not really be, I didn't have a business at the time, way before. And I used to be kind of a little bit more laisseze-faire in things like productivity and stuff like that. It just wasn't like—it wasn't something I struggled with.

And I think when I read that book, and then when I started a business and had to become a lot more productive and a lot more efficient and had a motivation to do that, I became a lot more I wouldn't say Type A, because that's not my personality. I'm not type A at all. But I prioritize organization and systems and being as productive as possible, and that's really benefited me in a lot of ways, but it's also had a lot of negative side effects, which is just what you're talking about.

Like, wanting everything to be efficient all the time. And that, combined with a tendency to be an overachiever, I think can be really toxic because then you're just like, well, what else can I do? I could fit that in. I could do that, too, and that leaves no room for rest, and so it's hard to prioritize rest. That's my relationship with efficiency.

Haley
Do you feel like you're good at setting aside efficiency when you're sewing or doing something creative?

Sarai
I'm getting better at it, for sure. I really have to work hard at that. I definitely feel like there's a place for it, but you can't live that way all the time. And I feel like with your hobbies, if you incorporate it too much, it's really detrimental and makes you not want to do it. So I feel like there's, like, a time for it in sewing, for example, or any creative hobby, and there's a time to set it aside.

Often when people talk about the creative process, the divergent stage and the convergence stage, the divergent stage is coming up with a lot of ideas and being really creative and coming up with different solutions. And the convergence stage is kind of putting it all together and making a plan and doing it. And I feel like you can incorporate efficiency more into that stage than the first one, but if you combine them too much, it could have negative effects. What about you?

Haley
It's something that I'm intentionally working on in my life in the moment. Something especially with, like, I have a lot of creative pursuits, but especially with sewing, I feel like it's something you can get ,for me, I get, like, oddly competitive, like, with myself of, like, oh, I can I can do that. I can finish or get to that point before lunch or whatever.

And I've been doing this thing that's kind of new to me, is that when I sew, sometimes I just sew for, like, five minutes. I'm like I just feel like I'm just going to sew, like, two seams.

Sarai
Yeah.

Haley
And it's really hard to tear myself away after that. I'm like, maybe I could just, like, do the facing or the whatever is the next step. And it's been kind of like this exposure therapy for me of lingering and just taking my time and doing the least. But I am not very good at setting aside efficiency, but I'm actively trying to be better.

Sarai
Yeah, me too. I was having this experience yesterday because I was sewing some pants, but I was also making a YouTube video about sewing the pants at the same time. And so I had these very conflicting things going on in my head because I did not want to rush it. I wanted to enjoy it, enjoy the process, because I do love making videos.

But at the same time, the sun was going to go down, and I was almost done with the pants, but I had very limited light left, and I started having to flip on the artificial lights, and that was making me very anxious.

So I feel like sometimes my work life and my creative life can be in conflict in that way, efficiency and creativity. And I also feel like I have this part of me that's, like, I think of as, like, the timekeeper who's always, like, rushing me to go faster and do more. And I feel like that is something I've had to work with and realize that that's just a part of me. That's not it's not like my true voice telling me that I need to do this.

It's just one of the many internal voices.

Haley
Yeah, totally. What kind of sewing projects make you want to linger in the process rather than, like, speed things up?

Sarai
It really depends for me. But I do think the projects that are a little bit more complicated force me to slow down more because I think with quick and easy projects, I expect to finish them in a day or an afternoon or however much time I've set aside. And so if I don't, then I feel disappointed in myself or I feel like I should have been able to do that or that when am I going to have time to finish this now, or whatever. But I feel like with those projects that you just expect to last a while or to be a little bit more challenging or have special details.

For example, one of the projects I'm going to be sewing soon is I'm going to make an Aims spouse, which, if you're not familiar with the pattern, it's sort of like this billowy top that we have, like very romantic and pretty. And I'm going to add some embroidery onto it. Hand embroidery, it's going to take a long time.

Haley
Yeah.

Sarai
And I know that. And I'm going to make sure I have enough time to do that. So I feel like those kinds of projects actually they're very healthy for me because I don't think about them in terms of getting stuff done quite as much. What about you?

Haley
I think that anything that involves a lot of pressing forces me to kind of linger because I love pressing and it's something I will never skimp on. I will always be taking my time at the ironing board. So anything that forces me to pause and press more often is something I will just automatically linger doing.

Sarai
I think another thing, I don't know about lingering, but I think something that makes me feel the process more than the result is doing anything more improvisational with sewing. That's more just about having fun with fabric. We did these blocks for the quilt that we donated recently that were more improvisational. Log cabin. Wonky Log Cabin? Yeah, and I don't do a ton of quilting. I want to do more quilting, but I haven't done a ton of it. And I hadn't done really any improv quilting like that. And it was so fun.

Haley
Yeah, it was fun.

Sarai
And I just really enjoyed the process of it. And I didn't even care. I mean, I wanted to look nice, but it wasn't as focused on having it look perfect.

Haley
I definitely hyper-fixated on those blocks for like a couple of days. I was like, this is so fun, I don't want to stop.

Sarai
Yeah.

Haley
Erica wanted each of us to make like, three or something. I made seven. I did not want to stop.

Sarai
It really made me want to do more quilting. And I think if you're in a creative rut, you could do that with sewing clothes, too. Like, just make something more free flowing, maybe use a pattern if you don't feel comfortable sewing without a pattern. But I think there's a lot of room for playing around whether that's patchwork, using up scraps, whatever it is, and just having fun with it could be like a good amuse bouche for your sewing.

Haley
Totally.

Sarai
All right, so back to this topic. So efficiency can be really stifling when it comes to creativity at times. And I think the pursuit of efficiency can really limit our ability to think differently, think outside the box, and come up with kind of different ideas.

So one of the issues is that when you're really outcome focused. So, for example, if you're really thinking about how you want to finish this blouse or you expected to finish this particular project in a day, like I was just talking about, it can really rob you of the opportunity to take that scenic route and really explore creativity along the way.

So a couple of tips if you find yourself in this situation so if you notice that this is happening to you, one of the things that's really helped me is to set intentions that are more experience, focused and not outcome focused.

What I mean by that is instead of setting a goal of finishing this project by the end of the day or setting a goal to make this blouse this week, instead of really focusing on the outcome, focus on what you're going to feel like while you're making it and what kind of experience you're going to have personally as you make it. How you're going to feel, whether you want to use this time to relax, whether you want to use this time to learn whether you want to use this time to kind of get into creative flow, whatever that is for you, whatever this experience of sewing does for you at its kind of peak, maybe that could be more of an intention for your sewing session rather than just the end result.

I think another thing, and this is related, which is and I've preached this for years, and I try to do it as much as I can, but avoid setting arbitrary deadlines for you to finish your sewing project. So in a lot of cases, my deadlines are not necessarily arbitrary when it comes to things like what I was just talking about and making the video. But for most of us, most of the time, and this is true for me most of the time too, with my sewing, you don't really actually have a deadline.

Haley
Right.

Sarai
You don't really need to finish this by whatever date or time you set in your head. And I think we can take advantage of that more than we do.

Do you do that a lot? Do you set yourself, like, completely arbitrary deadlines for finishing things?

Haley
I tend to do it with where I'm expecting to be with the project, not necessarily like, oh, I want to finish this by the end of the day. I'm more like, I have to set the sleeves before I finish sewing for the day. And I really try not to do that. I literally just did that yesterday when we were filming a sew along.

But I met my goal and I got that endorphin boost, and now I'm like, oh, no, I can't reward the monster inside of my head that wants arbitrary deadlines for everything.

I think something that I used to do a lot more was, like, before I went on a trip or an event, I'm like, I have to sew something new, and I don't do that as much anymore because it's just like, why?

Sarai
Why do that to yourself?

Haley
Yeah.

Sarai
It's tempting, though, especially if you have a reason to sew something. It can be very it's motivating. It's fun. Yeah.

Haley
I just feel like I'm at a place in my life where I'm like, I have, like, a toddler to take care of and, like, I have to pack for when we go somewhere. I have to pack for them.

Sarai
Yeah.

Haley
And I don't want to be up the night before sewing and then get on an airplane with a three year old. That just sounds like my personal version of hell. I've matured out of that for the time being. I'm looking forward to regressing on that someday.

Sarai
Yeah. I think part of it for me is also having a lot of things that I want to make, and so I feel like I got to get through this one because I have so many other ideas. I'm not going to be able to make all these things if I take forever to make this one. Not just clothing. I have a lot of clothing, but I also want to make things for the house. And I was thinking about making some tote bags just for the grocery store, for traveling or whatever and things like that, or even other hobbies that are outside of sewing. But that's that part of me that always wants to do more.

Haley
And making peace with that part of you and just knowing that you will always have more ideas than you have time. And that's kind of beautiful, and it's kind of sad.

Sarai
Yeah, it is. Like, a lot of things in life.

Well, the other thing, and I think we've touched on this a bit, is that efficiency, focusing on efficiency too much can also stifle innovation, because if you're trying to be efficient, you're a lot more likely to default to what's comfortable and what you already know, rather than experimenting and trying new and innovative things. And I've definitely found that to be true. Kind of getting back to what I was talking about, the divergent and the convergent parts of creativity.

So some tips for that. One thing is to pick out sewing projects that teach you a new skill. So this is a way to be really intentional about it and choose a project that's going to help you learn something new and just expect that you're going to be doing something new.

Or kind of staggering them so that you have things that you're more familiar with alongside things that you're not so familiar with. We have a whole episode on niche sewing. We'll link that in the show notes. So if you're looking for something to try that you haven't tried before, that can give you some really good ideas.

So if there's something that you've never experimented with before, like, I don't know, even making shoes or making a hat or just something you haven't tried before, that can give you a lot of great ideas. So I highly recommend that was a good episode. That was really fun to talk about.

Another thing is to take opportunities just to slow down and research when you're doing something new or challenging. I think a lot of times we tend to just jump in, and a lot of us, myself included, feel like we learned best by doing. And that's definitely true for me, but sometimes I can tend to jump in a little too fast when I think a part of the joy of sewing is really that research phase where you're really pulling ideas and learning before you actually start using your hands. Seeing all the different ways you could do it, seeing all the different techniques are out there. Learning from somebody who's done it before rather than just attempting it on your own. I think that's another really great way of slowing down.

Haley
And I think you can do that too, with not just skills that you don't know, but maybe things that you always sew one certain way. Something that we talk about a lot around Seamwork the staff is just how there's always so many ways to do one particular technique and slowing down to explore those different ways instead of just like taking your tried and true path can be a really great reminder to be present in the moment.

Sarai
Yeah, that's true. And we're doing some videos on this theme now. Haley and I are doing some battles on YouTube, coming up for different techniques.

Haley
Yes. Where we show down on the way that Sarai makes bias tape versus the way I make bias tape.

Sarai
My way is better.

Haley
But you guys should go watch the YouTube video.

Sarai
You can decide for yourself.

Haley
And you can decide that my way is better.

Sarai
The last kind of area that I want to touch on here is the idea of incubation.

So one of the ways that I think creativity and efficiency collide and counteract each other is that creativity really often requires some period of incubation. And it's not always this immediate one-time event.

Sometimes you need to give your creativity a lot of time and a lot of space so that your ideas can really mature and develop. And this is something I've been thinking about quite a bit because I've been kind of working with this idea of having dedicated time for creative thinking. And it's been really helpful for me. I'm reading this book. I mentioned it in another episode. I don't know if it's going to come up after this or before this, the episode we just recorded, but it was this book called [Idea Flow] that I'm reading.

And one of the techniques that they have in the book is if you have a problem or a question that you don't know the answer to, to write it down before bed and then sleep on it, and then in the morning come up with a list of different ways you could approach the problem.

And that sleep really helps give your brain a chance, gives your subconscious a chance to work on the problem when you're not fully aware of it. And I think this is something that's been shown in a lot of different ways. I think Thomas Edison used to take naps, like midday in order to kind of jumpstart his subconscious.

You hear about this all the time, but I think it really is true that you need that time to not be thinking directly about the idea and just let it percolate a little bit.

Another thing that's really helpful is having some dedicated time to conceptualize and just play with ideas without actually making the things. So without actually sewing, for example, that can be really valuable. And Design Your Wardrobe, for example. We talk about how incubation is really the trick to good design. It's really about giving yourself some room to breathe and think, not just when you're focusing on the problem, but when you're not focusing on the problem as well. And when I say problem, I mean like a design problem, which could be interpreted in a lot of different ways.

So I really like having time to do a one person brainstorm and then step away from it and come back later. That's something I've been experimenting with every every week now, trying to have that time to just, like, sit and generate a whole bunch of ideas and then just leave them alone for a little while. And I think with your work, Haley too, this is a big aspect. It's just like generating a whole bunch of ideas.

Haley
Yeah.

Sarai
And I don't know, do you immediately know which one is going to be the best, or do you kind of like, let them sit for a while occasionally?

Haley
I know which one is going to be the best. But you don't know that until, like, you only know that in hindsight. So that's why I always think it's, like, really important to approach your flow of ideas with no judgment and allow yourself to spend time with the good ideas, the bad ideas, the ugly ideas, because you never know which one is going to be the real winner.

For example, sometimes when I'm sketching, I'll be I'll start sketching something, I'll get halfway through it, I'm like, this is weird. What am I drawing? But in those moments, I always force myself to finish the illustration and just see where it takes me, because sometimes it ends up better than I thought it would, or it triggers another idea that ends up being the real winner. So just, like, allowing that space for your creativity to flow without judgment is so vital.

Sarai
Yeah, and I think, like you're saying, generating a lot of ideas is such a helpful part of that. And I think when it comes to your personal sewing, this could be part of a design process, like Design Your Wardrobe. Or it could just be your inspiration process. Your process of gathering tons and tons of inspiration and then coming back to it with fresh eyes later on. I think it can be really helpful.

Another way you can kind of get incubation to work for you is, if you're frustrated or if you don't like your finished project, to just step away from it and take a break, and that when you return to it, you might have a different perspective. So the different perspective could be a way you could fix an error that's driving you crazy. Or it could just be you might realize it's really not that bad, and this thing that really bugged you is not that bad. There have been times, definitely, where I've made something, like, every time I make something, I see what's wrong with it and see how I could have improved it. And sometimes that's really helpful for the next time I make a project or even if I make that project again.

And then other times, I look at photos of it and I think it looks great. It's fantastic. So what if it's got this little minor issue? That's something I learned from. So I think that's a helpful way to kind of frame your problems. And it's not necessarily about being perfect and efficient and spot-on all the time, but about learning.

Haley
Yeah, totally. You can't let perfection be what is it? The enemy of good.

Sarai
Something like that.

Haley
Something like that.

Wow. These are all really good tips that I need to take to heart. I practice some of these, but I definitely could use a little extra practice.

I think that my big takeaway is that, first of all, I've come a long way when it comes to slowing down. I think that my other big takeaway is that I was just thinking about that quilt. I'm like, man, maybe I need to show another quilt, because that was a very refreshing experience. And I'm also redecorating my bedroom right now, and I really want to make a king size quilt.

Sarai
Yeah, I do, too, but I don't know. The cats, Kenn's gotten into this thing where he likes to play laser pointer with them in the bedroom at night, and they love it because their bedroom has carpet, so there's a lot of traction, but they're always, like, running across the bed, claws out.

Haley
Yeah.

Sarai
So I don't know.

Haley
Banned. Save the quilt.

Sarai
No. Their happiness is paramount.

Haley
Oh, you're a big person for that. I'm curious, what was your big takeaway from this episode?

Sarai
I think my my biggest takeaway from this is the idea of incubation I think is really important. And this idea that if you really are interested in getting the most juice from your creativity, and when I say that, I mean really the most enjoyment from it and have it be the most fulfilling as it can be in your life, then you kind of have to let go of the idea that it's being productive.

And I think one of the ways that I could improve that is just consciously building in those periods of incubation a little bit more. And I've been trying to do that more and more, but I think there are a lot of different ways you can incorporate that into your life for whatever your pursuits are, whether it's sewing or any other creative pursuit that you have. And that's something that I want to work on over the next several months.

Haley
You got it. I believe in you.

Sarai
Thank you.

Haley
Well, I really want to shout out. Design Your Wardrobe really quick.

Design Your Wardrobe is a super popular premium course that we have that is free to our Seamwork members, and it walks you through a process of designing a collection of projects for a season. It's available as a self guided program, or we run it as a group course twice a year.

You can learn more about it at Seamwork.com/go/dyw. And if you want a little taste of what's included, you can get our free sewing planner at Seamwork.com/go/free-planner. And we will link both of those things in the show notes.

And if you like this episode, I just encourage you to leave us a review. It makes us aware of whether we're on track or not. I hope we are. I hope we're making things that you like, but it also helps other people to find us so that we can share this podcast with even more people who love sewing, just like you do and just like we do. You can leave us a review. You can thumbs up it, you can give us five stars, whatever you can find the time for.

We would just appreciate it. And you can also follow us on YouTube at Seamwork video. We've been doing a ton of cool new content. Sarai's been killing some project diaries that are really fun to watch. You can follow us on Instagram at Seamwork, and if you'd like to join Seamwork and become part of our private community, plus get access to hundreds of sewing patterns in dozens of sew along classes, podcast listeners get 50% off. That is a lifetime discount when you join at seamwork.com/go/podcast50.

Sarai
All right, that does it for us this week. I'm Sarai.

Haley
And I'm Haley.

Sarai
And this is Seamwork Radio.