Sometimes just listening is creative work.

Something I struggled with for a long time was doing nothing as a creative.

And realising it was work.

When I first started my production studio, as a young entrepreneur, I was doing everything all the time. The usual 12-14 hour days for years.

At the time our studio was in a co-working space. Multiple levels, lots of different companies.

I’d work the full week Monday to Friday in the business, and then I used the weekend to work on the business. So I’d go into the coworking space on a Saturday from about mid-afternoon.

I remember walking in an it being empty. I was thinking too myself, “yeah Clayton, this is why youre going to be successful with this, you’re doing the work when no one else is” and this wave of superiority would wash over with me as I’d set up.

And I’d start, do a few small tasks. But then I found some nights I just sit there, staring at a screen or a whiteboard.

And then it would hit midnight or 1am and I’d done nothing! I had nothing to show for it. No new marketing plan, no list of clients, no creative production ideas.

I would stare at a blank whiteboard with marker in hand.

And hate myself.

I’d drive home on the empty roads and think why am I doing this? This is stupid. You did nothing, what a waste of time. Sacrificing time in your relationships, your health, your sleep. For what?

And then after a few months I read a quote from a writer, that said something that hit me in the head like a brick.

That sometimes staring at a blank page is work.

Staring at a blank canvas is work.

For me, as a creative entrepreneur, staring at a blank whiteboard, was work.

And it was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders.

And when I reflected on it, I think it was for 2 reasons.

1. I obviously wasn’t just blank staring at the page. Ideas would come in and out, they’d play out and dissipate, I’d run scenarios, roughly. Maybe I’d drift off and think about the team or people. But the point is that my mind would wander. And I found that it needed time to. Cause every other part of my life was doing tasks. Production, scheduling, payroll, accounts, forecasts, clients, sales, delivery, quality control. This was my wandering time. My mind was free to wander the desert of possibility.

2. Secondly, mind wandering could never happen if it wasn’t in that environment. Short of talking an 8 hour shower, this was an environment that I could let my creative entrepreneur brain run wild. It came up with good ideas sometimes, it was able to process bad ideas sometimes. I probably avoided a lot of bad decisions by allowing them to play out in my head at that time.

And it just gave my mind space. Away from the business, away from Homelife, away from my phone and social media. It was the equivalent of a Buddhist monastery in the mountains.

I think now, that it helped me find some peace, in a time my world was chaos.

So please, from my experience, don’t beat yourself up if as a creative, you find yourself staring at whatever your blank canvas is. Your brain and your soul need it.

As long as at other times you are creating and you are taking action, cherish these moments of emptiness, and you might just find your channel of creativity widen.

Keep creating my friends.