There’s the short-term, action-oriented, task-focused brain. Then there’s the deep-pondering, less-contained, creative-focused brain.
Sometimes, they’re the same brain.
What I find troubling is how hard it is to separate them. When I have finally created that mythical perfect environment to create – no pressure for time, quiet, the house to myself, maybe a whiskey or a pipe – I can start a great many things, but rarely finish them.
I don’t just mean not finish them in that moment. That would be fine. I mean when I come back to what I started, I find it extremely difficult to finish. Yet starting and finishing something in one sitting, as I do these daily blog posts, comes very easy for me.
Task-checking mode seems to drive a completionist sort of creativity. While creative mode seems to allow me to start things, but the mere act of starting relieves sufficient creative pressure that I’m too relaxed when I return to finish.
Should I just accept this tendency, and determine all I’m good for are shorter articles that can be written in a single sitting with no forethought, or should I fight the pattern and try to learn how to have ongoing longer projects?