I recently read a blog post (which I absolutely should not have clicked on) which berated P90X users for needing a program to get fit. Real fit people, the blog argues, don’t need a plan. This makes so little sense to me, it actually makes my head hurt. To my understanding, people who are in good shape exercise regularly, and people who exercise regularly have a plan to do so. Furthermore, following a pre-packaged plan that’s been put together by fitness experts and has been highly recommended by trusted friends who’ve actually used the program seems like a nice little recipe for success to me. And in fact, doing such a thing makes me feel smart, and capable.
I apply the same kind of logic to my job. I know that if I get the girls I nanny to the park in the morning before their naps, they take longer, easier naps, I get a break, the afternoon goes better, we all get some sunshine and exercise. In order to make that happen, I have to start packing up the diaper bag almost as soon as I get to work. I have to cycle the two older girls through the bathroom, get them dressed, and apply sunscreen and bugspray. This doesn’t happen on accident. I have a checklist of all the stuff we need and all the tasks that have to be completed before we’re ready to leave for the park, and this happens every working day the weather permits. Consequently, we always make it to the park, the girls never get sunburned, I don’t get eaten by mosquitoes, and we don’t have to leave early because of a potty emergency or lack of a healthy snack.
My writing, yes my art, works the same way. I have big blocks of time set aside on my calendar just for writing, and only writing happens during those blocks of time. I always have coffee made and snacks ready when that time rolls around, I have a Pandora station playing that I’ve been honing for years, the dog has been fed, and I’m ready to create. I have word count goals, specific task lists to balance prose and poetry, fiction and non-fiction, promotion, craft building, and old fashioned work. I get a lot of work done this way, which you can see by the amount of poetry I write and perform, and the fact that I’m 26 and working on my fifth novel. Not to brag or anything.
I’ve been accused more than once of not leaving enough room for inspiration and spontaneity. While this could be a blog about how you have to plan for something to get it done, I know actual artists, even writers, who do real work on the fly all the time. In fact, during the periods of my life where I was not as focused as I am at this moment, I did a lot of writing when the mood struck me, and actually completed my first book that way.
In my turn, I can get frustrated at the lack of structure in other people’s lives. My cute husband is a great example, since he lives almost the exactly opposite way I do. It is easy for me to say, “If you just always threw the garbage away after you’re done cooking…” or “If you want to keep your fitness going through the winter, you have to pick a sport that can be played indoors.” But the fact of the matter is, the cute husband gets a lot of stuff done all the time. He works full time, he’s in Vineyard Leadership Institute, he plans events, he codes for Android, and fixes computers in his spare time.
So, could we just get along? Could I be okay with people who like a little less structure in their lives and admit that they somehow magically accomplish stuff? And could people who prefer to live that way stop accusing me of being weaker, dumber, or less artistic because I find structure effective? Could we do that?
