Photo by Barry Schwartz
According to the New York Times, getting enough rest is as important as working hard if you want to be really productive; in fact, it enables you to work harder.
For us creatives, I would suggest that getting enough rest can increase creativity as well.
Tony Schwartz (no relation), in his article “Relax! You’ll Be More Productive” in the New York Times on February 9, writes that when a researcher “got male basketball players to sleep 10 hours a night, their performance in practice dramatically improved: free-throws and three-point shooting each increased by an average of 9 percent.”
A quantitative improvement, with an increase in creativity. You doubt? Athletic acts are creative acts – thinking on your feet, quite literally. No difference to what creative-types like myself do every day, even though much of my thinking is done on my butt, not on the balls of my feet.
Even a ditch-digger can be creative – I speak with some authority on this – so no slam intended on ditch-diggers of whatever kind, including accountants and politicians.
Milton Glaser is arguably the most influential graphic designer of the last 50 years. Over the entrance door to his office are the words: “Art is Work”.
Glaser should know. If work is better done with focus and energy, and creativity is part of the process that produces work, then getting enough rest means you’re more likely to be more creative. While you might not create Art, you’ll at least be creating Work – and that’s what clients pay us for.