Creative Habits

My college painting professor at Pomona College was convinced that if he maintained the same routine every day - the keystone being eating the same burrito for lunch day after day - he would be able to create his best work. At the time I thought he was a little nutso, which of course in many ways he was, but after recently reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg I have come to see my professor's quirky inflexibility in a different light.

The effectiveness of his system had nothing to do with what burrito he ate. It was just important that he ate the same one everyday. That way he had one less decision to make - it was automated. He had more energy to think about the work he was going to create in the studio, to notice the quality of the light coming through the trees. As Duhigg explains, the more good habits you cultivate that free up your mental space and time for your most important work, the more effective you will be. And it starts by finding the most important "keystone" habits that will have a domino effect on all your other habits. (A disclaimer here - I'm not claiming that eating the same burrito everyday is healthy but it seemed to work for him).

Before reading Duhigg's book, I held the belief that really successful people didn't have time to think about the small stuff in their lives - what kind of toilet paper to buy, the most sensible morning routine. But I have realized that really successful people sometimes actually obsess over these little details because they know that some of them are going to have an exponential effect on their lives - on how they make the rest of their decisions throughout the day. Streamlining processes, maintaining a healthy body and rested mind - these are incredibly influential habits to form.

As freedom and spontaneity-craving artists, it is sometimes difficult to reign ourselves in with habitual practices. Won't this constrict our creativity? For me when I am successful at finding a healthy habit I can stick with, it does just the opposite - more the energy conservation my professor was experiencing. Even better is to find a keystone habit that is a creative act itself.

My most successful keystone habit over the last several years - one which I credit for eliminating my significant collection of day jobs to allow me to be a full-time artist - is to create a piece of art every day. This started in 2008, shortly after getting divorced at the age of 28. Somewhat organically, I began creating one drawing every day. Not allowing myself the excuse that I was too tired from teaching yoga, coaching gymnastics, and substitute teaching middle school (often all on the same day), I unfailingly pulled out a 4"x6" piece of paper that I had made stacks and stacks of and began to draw, usually shortly before bed. I drew the most beautiful thing I could remember seeing that day.

Painting aboard the "Mariella" on the Baltic Sea

This keystone habit of drawing before bed led me to wake up excited for what I might see that day to draw later on. It made me more observant and appreciative throughout my day, and at peace falling asleep, knowing that I had created at least one act of art making that day. Little by little this habit was leading me closer to my goal of painting full time.

Looking back this was a transformative habit. Today that particular, routinized way of coping with a difficult time has become deeply engrained as a joyful part of my daily life. From my daily art-making habit, my line of miniature plein air paintings sprung, and is at this very moment allowing me to travel through Finland and Iceland creating art and having pop-up shows wherever I am. It allows me to very quickly connect to a place and understand what its residents love about it, and through this I connect to the residents themselves. My life has somewhat effortlessly formed itself around one simple habit that sometimes takes  as little as five minutes.

And it's the little things that I love about it - you all know about my painting kit from a post detailing its contents a few months ago. (It now has a name, Georgia). This little box has become my most prized possession. It offers endless hours of enjoyment, or just a quick salvation from a stressful day. I love the pop of the wet painting storage box when opened, finding my brushes just how I left them, familiar and clean. All my favorite colors greeting me. The satisfying snap of the Sigg box lid when I close it. I started creating art daily for the relief it brought me, and the satisfaction of working towards a goal. Now the process itself has become the reward. It is a perfect manifestation of what Duhigg explains as the cue-process-reward mechanism. I see something beautiful (cue). I make a painting (process). I feel at peace and have a little piece of art to share (reward). Ultimately process and reward merge and the habit becomes the reward.

For artists striving to make their work a bigger part of their lives, creating a keystone habit that directly inspires their creative process is one piece of advice I can really attest to. Give yourself the luxury of an enjoyable, meaningful daily practice that will help you feel more connected to the artist in you.