Sidling Into Work

One way to begin working on a creative project is to start to do something considerably easier and similar in some way to the work you need to do. If you’re about to write, you could start with lists on index cards or pieces of paper, and then start your writing project. This is sort of like starting a car and putting it into first gear first, driving a little while, and then putting it into second.

Three or more stage sidling might be possible. When playing the guitar, I sometimes start with scales, then move to guitar lesson material, then start to play and sing songs. A fourth stage might be working on writing new songs. Coming up with new songs does seem to take a little more effort and attention than playing other people’s songs. It might make sense to sidle into it.

There might be a risk of running out of stamina if you spent too much time in the sidling stage and not enough time actually doing the hard work. But a little easy work before more difficult work can be welcome.