Stealing Time For Photography With Slow Productivity
The right balance of work and creativity
For someone like me who has a full-time and demanding job, taking out time for photography sometimes gets hard. Being in a day job and also with other responsibilities I have less time to pursue what I love the most. Don’t get me wrong. I do take photographs all the time. When I drive up and down to work, around my office surroundings and at home as well. What I miss is savouring those moments around the process of taking photographs. I just take the photographs every day in a hurried manner. The other part I miss is creating a body of work. Consistently building a project, an idea and a theme around photography.
Recently I came across Cal Newport, an American author, whose most recent book called “Slow Productivity” really got me thinking. There were some great ideas from his book that one could adapt to live a more creative life instead of just dedicating one’s life to the day job. The longing for a creative life, like for many others I guess, has been the central imagination all my life. Cal Newport’s book made me realise that it is we who build boundaries around ourselves which then effect our other interests in life.
I have always been interested in this question of how can I allot some meaningful hours of my time to photography? In today’s world, burnout is still quite common. Days are filled with numerous emails, meetings and tasks. The mindset that most of us have developed over the years is that in all this busy-ness there is no room for creativity. So, then what is slow productivity and how does it help our creative endeavours?
When we reclaim our time and focus on things that really matter for that day, it makes all the difference. For example, identifying the most important task of the day and completing it by putting all our focus into it is an achievement. This also gives the space for other interests. So instead of filling the day with endless tasks, take up the most important one. Work that can wait, can be pursued later. Because daily work isn’t a competition! Prioritising in this manner also means saying no to unnecessarily taking on work which should in fact be delegated. And it involves having faith in others’ abilities to take care of that work.
Consciously taking out time to pursue our passions is the key. Newport gives examples of Isaac Newton and Madam Curie who did ground-breaking work in their lifetime but they also pursued their other interests. This was possible because they slowed down, keeping a deep focus over many years on the task they had chosen. Over a period of time I have come to understand that when I have taken out time to pursue my interest in photography, my day-job does not seem tedious. The key is to value my own creative time and make a commitment of a couple of hours to photography — away from the chaos of the world.
To sum up: slowing down, focusing on quality and not quantity, giving creativity importance and space in your timeline, saying no to unimportant tasks, doing one thing at a time by prioritising tasks can all lead us on a path of freedom to pursue our interests. Photography for me is a fulfilling creative act which transports me into another world. It’s my form of escape from the other world around me that can be wearying at times. Photography brings me joy and hope. If slow productivity with deep focus will help me get to my magical world of images, so be it!
