Why You Need a Daily Creative Practice

Concentration is a limited resource. You can only stay in flow state for so long before you begin to feel fatigued. 

I’m learning this first hand right now. I’ve officially started writing my first book (don’t worry, the vlog is coming soon), and I’m constantly running into my daily word limit. Some days it’s higher, some days much lower, but every day has a limit. I only have so many good words in me per day. 

Research supports this. Roy F. Baumeister ran a study out of Case Western Reserve University that measured someone’s perseverance after employing willpower to resist a plate of freshly baked cookies. In his study, participants had to work through a difficult puzzle. Some were told they could eat freshly baked cookies before working on the puzzle, and others were told they had to refrain. Those who refrained worked on the puzzle for less time than those who didn’t have to spend their willpower and decision-making power on not eating cookies. 

I interpret this as yet another reason to engage in a daily creative practice. We can procrastinate, and wait for an open week (that will likely never come) when we can finally work on our project. But if we only have so much output in us, we can’t produce much more on a completely free day than we could during a busy day.