The Spaces In Between : Un / Productivity and the Creative Life

Learning to embrace the 'unproductive' moments of a creative life

Welcome to Slow Folk - a community for gentle hearts and rebellious creatives, thirsty for a slower life in a world obsessed with speed.

These are my notes and reflections from over a decade of life in the Slow Lane. If you’re ready to push back against busy to build a life of purpose and presence-over-perfection - please join me.

Welcome to the Unbusy Revolution.

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My short drive to the pool each morning has become one of my favourite parts of my day. For 15 minutes at dawn, I drive a stretch of wooded highway and watch the morning mist rise over the beaver pond.

I don’t listen to the news. I don’t turn on the music. I just sit and let the morning wash over me.

Usually, I’ve already been up and writing for a wee while with a hot cuppa, early mornings being pretty much the only properly quiet time in my busy household during the summer.

But I don’t try to think through my piece while I drive. I just let it simmer. Quietly, untouched.

One of the things I’ve noticed among the creatives and entrepreneurs I work with is many of us struggle with being still.

Even when we set out to build an intentionally slow or simple life - stillness can cause all kinds of discomfort and worse yet - crippling self-doubt.

This lovely, vulnerable piece by

Janelle Hardacre

speaks to the difficulty so many of us have with the “ebb” of our creative process.

Accepting ebb and flow

We want to be productive. We chase the holy grail of ‘flow’ each time we sit down at our desk. We want to strive, for creativity to find us working.

Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working. - Picasso

And yet, often - that striving, that pushing, that yearning - gets in the way of the work itself.

What if, instead of viewing the ebb as a negative, a space of downtime or unproductivity to be fixed or feel shame about . . .