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December 2011 Issue
Creating vs. Consuming vs. Recharging at Christmas
Figuring out work-life balance is trying in any season, but never more difficult than during the holidays.  It is a tempting time of year to feel pressured to complete business conversations, however brief, and finish delayed projects.   A lot of important-but-not-urgent stuff comes along to compete for our time and mental energy.
For me, mental energy at this time of year is a dwindling resource that must be allocated with care.  When I looked closely at how I spend my energy, I found that I was consistently engaging in one of three activities:  creating, consuming, or recharging. I was disappointed to see how little time I spend in the first of the three.

As an example, one of my least favorite activities is checking email. Every time I get a new computer or email program, I immediately turn off the new message alert. I am also pretty good about keeping my inbox to one screen, bouncing and unsubscribing unwanted emails, and setting up rules to have some incoming emails go into a folder that I check later.  However, I still seem to find myself back in that inbox.

One day I took a new approach to the messages that were there, asking myself the same question for each message:  "Am I creating, consuming, or recharging with this message?"  To be sure I got meaningful results out of this experiment, I defined my terms before beginning: 

Creating – Am I contributing something new to our existing body of knowledge through this message, or am I adding to the production side of GDP? 

Consuming – Am I only contributing to the consumption side of GDP through this message?

Recharging  - Does this message help me to sharpen my saw?

The results were sufficiently interesting that I decided to apply the same system to activities other than email and found that

1.Consuming is so easy.
2.Creating is hard.
3.Recharging is procrastinatable.  (I just contributed to our body of knowledge with a new made-up word). 

Similarly, watching the news is easy. Writing is hard. Practicing my yoga, well, I can just catch up on that over Christmas. Muscles have memory, don't they?

From my anecdotal discussions with friends and colleagues, it seems I am not alone in this quandary. The thing is, Why do we have so much difficulty with creating, especially when it helps us feel better?  After all, how did you feel the last time you brought a business deal to a successful conclusion, saw the light bulb of discovery in a student's eyes, wrote a blog post, built something from scratch, contributed to a discussion, drew a picture for someone, or made something broken work like new?  

Creating, using our minds or our physical skills to innovate, to solve problems, to entertain, or even to amuse others, is what I call "thriving."  When do children often thrive?  At play. As we become adults, what activity do we get to do less of?  Play. Maybe that's why creating becomes so hard.
I have a cousin who has always given me handmade Christmas presents. The presents weren't fancy quilts or knitted scarves. They were often simple ornaments, made of her children's own play materials, like glue, glitter, cotton balls, and construction paper.  The gift probably took her very little time. However, it was the elegance in the way she put the materials together that was so innovative. The touching part for me is that, rather than someone else's innovation for Christmas, she gave me her own.
One of my resolutions for 2012, then, will be to consciously spend more time creating, because I have now concluded that playing makes you more creative, more productive, and helps you feel better, too.  It probably also makes you more handsome or beautiful. And cures cancer.

Seriously, though, imagine if we all spent a little less time in 2012 consuming and made a little more time for creating and innovating. What could come of it? 

Will I see you on the playground?