Ok, I’ll admit I have said this out loud to a number of people before, and as far as placid advice goes, this one really seems rile. “I don’t like poems”, “writing doesn’t interest me”, or my personal favourite – “I’m not a repressed historical lesbian”.  

I get it, but let me start by saying this article really has nothing to do with poetry. I’m using poems as a metaphor for any activity that produces. I would use the word ‘creates’ here but for the countless number of people that say, “oh, I’m not creative” and stop listening. This default will then build self-doubt – a horrifically effective barrier to motivation.

This article is actually about understanding the balance between producing and consuming. How this balance so hugely affects your motivation levels, and how to manage that balance to work in your favour – positively affecting the areas of your life where you’re trying to ‘achieve’. If you haven’t read my last piece on why today is so much harder than yesterday, there’s more context there.

In the simplest term, producing and consuming are antagonistic partners. The more you consume, the more your body craves consuming. Conversely, the more you produce, the more your body will crave producing. The more of one, results in the less of the other.

What do you consume in a day? Certainly your meals and snacks but what about podcasts? Music? Social media? Netflix? Stop and think for a moment. How much of today did you spend consuming? Write an exhaustive list. How long is it?

And what do you produce in a day? Do you make your lunch or dinner? Do you produce the idea of what to cook? Or look for recipe inspiration? Or are you a Deliveroo-person? Do you wash your dishes or get your dishwasher to produce the cleaning results? Do you make anything? Or buy something from the store? Do you fix your sink when it’s clogged? Or get someone to come around and do it for you?

Our economy is designed for your convenience – to save you time. In exchange for this, you’re giving up your need to produce. The less you have to produce, the less you want to produce. The less you want to produce, the more you look for convenience. A vicious cycle. 

Let’s break it.

First, a quick tangent to disparage a common barrier you might build for yourself, even after hearing this.

“I don’t have the time”. 

Whilst I can certainly empathise, I’m manic from morning till night. I would argue reframing this statement to “I don’t have the focus, motivation or energy” allows you to bring the core problem to the fore, “how do I find more focus, motivation and energy?” Not more time.

So how do I find more focus, motivation and energy? 

Well, in short, produce more, more often and with more rigour. 

As always when breaking cycles or patterns, the first part is the hardest. Going against what your body is craving; actively putting in the exhaustive energy to break the need to consume. I promise that over time, producing will become easier and easier. Eventually, after producing so much, consuming becomes less interesting. Remember life is a balance. Consuming is good also, over-consuming is the motivation-killer. 

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The idea: start producing by writing some crap poems. 

Here’s how:

1. Carry a little book and a pen with you everywhere. Instead of getting your phone out when you’re on your train or bus, get the book out and write or draw. Don’t put any pressure on what to write or how good it needs to be. Just write. Know the process is good for you, and soon you’ll develop your own style of what excites you to scribble. Once you get hooked on writing, it’s so fun! When I now sit on the train, staring at a blank page with a pen in-hand, I feel this rush of childlike wonder. “I can write or draw anything I want!”. It’s actually very intoxicating. Another lovely side-funzy is that once you start filling the little books out, shopping for your next book and pen is really exciting - if not terribly uncool.

2. Make the time by consciously reminding yourself of the value of producing. By reminding yourself that spending an extra 15 mins perusing the shelves at Tesco to get the ingredients, and the extra 40 mins to prepare something tasty is going to have the most profound knock-on effect. It’ll become easier to find the time because you’ll want to.

3. Stop using your phone when travelling. Use your new book FFS. (Yes, I put this one twice. It’s an easy and effective life-hack.)

4. Walk. Walk instead of mindlessly getting the bus or train in the evening (if you can). You may get home 90 minutes later, but remind yourself of the benefits and be the master of producing your journey home. Movement and brain function are intrinsically linked, this will have lots more benefits for creativity, motivation and focus. Your best ideas can formulate through movement. 

5. When you’re moving, don’t wear headphones. Well, not all the time anyway. Sometimes it’s so nice to walk and listen to music or podcasts. I’m not always the consumption police, but more often than not, take the time to just think, come up with ideas, interpret your day, rank your favourite movie stars, whatever you like. It’s important to learn how to stave off your own boredom by producing thoughts.

6. Learn to fix your shit. Change plugs, lights, or basic plumbing. Maintenance is an important principle of life that our economy leads you to forget. Own the responsibility to not let it.

7. When you create something cool, you don’t have to post about it. It’s just one thing on an infinite journey of creations. Do it because it feels good, not because you need praise from strangers on the internet. 

Remember. A bit of practice in any area of ‘producing’ will make every other area much easier tomorrow. You don’t need to be good at what you’re creating. It’s not for anyone else (most of the time). Remove barriers by reminding yourself of the importance of finding motivation through productivity. 

Next issue, I’ll be writing about HOW TO MAKE CHANGES.

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With love

Adam

…

I’m sure you’ll feel robbed unless I leave you with one of my poems so here goes:

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As yet untitled by Me

I’m gonna eat you like a spider and let you work your way through my intestinal tract. 

One right feast for the senses. 

Seasonal markings of self-loathing and horror;

And a ghostly whisper.

“Respect me.” Respect me and my brother. 

Respect the sergeant for sanity, loosely based on that c**t from the barbers. 

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High-rise and red-eyed;

The only way is sideways.
Anything’s better than this s**t hole. 

So thanks Dad.

I’m gonna live forever. 

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*[Footnote here - Iz and I always argue about my (over)use of italics. Apparently I should be able to “emphasise with my writing and not have to rely on my punctuation.” But in the case above, regarding the use of two italic words in one sentence, I think it is totally justified. I used italics for the word “any”, as I want to emphasise that it could literally be anything. And I used italics for the word “produces” because I wanted to stress that the word chosen was very deliberate. Please can you let her know that she can be kinder about my writing and that her snide comments often hurt. We didn’t all study film and read 52 books a year.]