I want to be honest with you. 100% honest. I feel guilty every day, a couple of times a day. I’ve never committed a crime and I’ve never hurt anyone. I’m even trying to not to regret my decisions even if they’re bad (I take a lesson from them and I move on).
However, I’m talking about a different kind of guilt – ”a creative guilt.” Once it gets stuck in my head, it’s hard to get rid of it.
I think we’ve all been there at some point:
- “I could be more productive.”
- “I could be designing something instead of watching another TV show.”
- “I could be writing another blog post instead of scrolling through the Facebook stream.”
- “I could be learning something new instead of having a meaningless discussion on Twitter.”
And the list goes on…
You will always think that you could be doing more and that you could be using your free time better. Even if you actually spent a couple of hours on that side project, at the end of the day you’ll still think that you could have been more productive and done more.
You’re trying to beat yourself at your own game. You’ll never win. The truth is that the more you do, the more you’ll require from yourself.
So, there is only one way to deal with it…
Embrace it!
I was trying to fight my guilt for a long time. I thought it was wrong to feel that way. No matter how hard I tried to fix it, it always came back.
So, I have finally given up and looked at it from a different angle. I have simply accepted it. I realized that this creative guilt is what makes me better and what pushes me to try harder and step out of my comfort zone.
It’s similar to a little stress, which can actually help you better respond in certain situations. Too much stress can be detrimental and unhealthy, but you can take advantage of a mild form of stress and put it to good use.
Once you accept your creative guilt, you can start treating it like a little competition and having some fun instead. Stop blaming yourself and instead focus on every small win.
After all, you shouldn’t feel guilty at all because…
You’re probably more productive than you think.
It’s funny how it works, but some people I know who have accomplished a lot in their life usually complain most about being unproductive.
It’s because they care and that’s what makes them remarkable. If you’re completely guilt-free, you may have lost that little voice in your head that helps you to do more than you think you’re able to.
You have to push through the pain to build the muscle. It’s that one hour of work after midnight that counts most.
You can’t be too hard on yourself either. There is a thin line between wanting to push harder to be productive and beating yourself up for not doing enough – that kind of guilt can really bring you down.
I’ve been there, but someone once told me:
“Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”
I’m not sure who originally said that, but I think about this one sentence every time when some black clouds of unhealthy creative guilt gather above my head.
Don’t feel bad that you spent time with your family or friends instead of doing your creative work. It sounds ridiculous, but I have felt that way at some points in my life.
Doing what you like and enjoying wasting your time is actually crucial to becoming more productive in your work. I wrote a post three years ago that I often refer to and helps to remind myself to always focus on managing my energy, not my time.
Doing physical activities will help you be stronger and increase your energy to perform that extra work after hours.
Having good relationships with people you love will make you more happy which can positively affect your creativity. Watching another TV show or reading a book you like can bring you some new ideas and inspire your next great project.
In summary, embrace your small amount of creative guilt and take advantage of it. Use it to push your limits. Be aware that if you care about your productivity and time, you’re probably doing better than you think.
Finally, don’t let your creative guilt take away the fun and enjoyment from your life!
This is exactly how I’ve been feeling lately – thanks for sharing!
This article hit home for me. I was so struggling with this, that I thought I had a large collection of bad habits. I just finished a book by Gretchen Rubin called Better Than Before to help me with my everyday struggle. Right now I am moving through the pain of finishing a few things. Thanks for the article!
Hi Patricia,
Thanks. I’ll check out the book. I haven’t figured it all out yet. I’m still struggling like everybody else here 😉
Glad you wrote about this. I struggle with this type of thinking as well. I have to remind myself that sitting by the window watching the rain is never a waste of time.
We should definitely spend some more time alone on just thinking… I used to fill out my every spare minute with listening to podcasts, checking emails, reading, etc… and I realized that we can’t be creative and think on our own if we only consume someone else’s thoughts.
Thanks for this post Rafal. Just what I needed as sometime I feel guilty for not doing more. This gave me a peace of mind. Thank you.
Hey Henrik,
I’m glad to hear that. Thanks for your comment!
Thanks Rafal. I was just struggle with not being able to do more;as I was spending time with my family and this led to doing less work. I always knew that somethings in life are more important than work. However, I still felt guilty. Great to know that I am not the only one experiencing this. Your article liberated me.
Thanks Rafal. I am in concurrence with the philosophy “Follow your heart”
Rafal, thank you very much for sharing this. As a writer and translator, I’ve always felt a need for different input, which ended up making part of my history and building up a knowledge background that helps me both in work and in life. Also, we tend to prioritize work over family, and this is also not good to our health – physically and emotionally. So, thanks for reminding us with these simple words that we need to embrace who we are and keep faithful to that — without forgetting that there are other important thing in our lives as well. My most sincere kudos to you!
Nice article…. great
Thanks for this article! I feel every day like this…
BTW: I think John Lennon said “Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”.
Hey Malte,
Thanks for letting me know. I’ll edit the post to give John Lennon credit for that quote 🙂
Great article! Exactly how feel all the time. I’ve always described it as a gift and a curse. Gift because I’m always pushing myself to do better but curse because you never can relax. I find a lot of creatives have this problem and in a world so focused on efficiency, it’s nice to see more articles being honest and advising about creative guilt
Dude you’re just s*** that is still trying to shine because you think you are special. No… You are just one more unproductive, uncreative, mindless designer that’s trying to justifciate (I know it’s not a real word just f*** you) his role in society. (should I say “its”). Creative guilt ? REALLY ? REALLY ?
Hi Charles,
Looks like you had a really bad week. I hope it’ll make you feel better that I actually decided to publish your comment. Well, it’s not spam, it’s real and you spent your precious time to let me know about it, so it wouldn’t be fair if I deleted it.
I hope you don’t mind I censored some words, because I don’t like swearing on my site.
Enjoy your weekend. Relax. Have a beer or two 😉
“waiting for moderation”… why do I waste my own time ? I am also such a douchbag.
Thanks
Your creative guilt seems to be a parallel to imposter syndrome. The people who feel it are the ones who least need to worry about it. The real imposters have no awareness that they don’t know what they are doing.
Likewise if you aren’t worried about your productivity or creativity, maybe you should be. If you thinking about it, you’re probably OK. Enjoy your “wasted time” and keep going.
Keep up the good work and well done answering a tough comment kindly.
It is like you took the thoughts right out of my head and wrote them down 🙂 So on point, thank you!
Veronica
Rafal you are the great man because you describe own feelings 🙂
Man, I know the feeling /sigh/. I was feeling guilty while reading this article despite it’s Saturday night. #programmerslife
My favorite sentence: Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.
Thank you 😉
Hi Rafal, good point here. I wake up and go to sleep with this guilt, and it makes me feel bad at the time… However, sometimes I wonder, why is it that everytime I try to push hard for something, it feels like a battle…. and then everytime I waste time on things that I enjoy, there is a magic that will happen just out of the blue and will make things happen without any effort… It’s really strange how things work in this universe 🙂
Completly agree with you. Embracing stress can be a creative solution to take advantage of it. Its the emotions that we feel and express, makes up our social identity. We need to accept those and become more authentic and original.
I recently posted about how to make stress your best friend here https://blogofrituraj.wordpress.com/2016/02/17/coping-with-stress/
I totally agree. Thanks for sharing, is good to know that I am not the only one feeling that guilty.
Thanks for approaching your websites and presenting more different ideas some inspire any websites.