I can’t overstate how much this article has put things into perspective for me. As someone who owns his own business, but also does most of the actual work for that business (design, writing coding, etc.), I felt the tension between the Maker/Manager schedules, but never could put it into words: I have to be both.
Every day I have to be the “manager” – have the meetings, “do” coffee/lunch, build relationships and work with clients. But, I also, every day, have to produce. I have to find blocks of several hours of uninterrupted time that I can dedicate to design, or code, or general creativity—making stuff.
I think balancing the two schedules is almost impossible, but I can now be more intentional about trying: relegating meetings to certain days of the week, or times in the day, and more actively protecting blocks of “maker” time.
I find one meeting can sometimes affect a whole day. A meeting commonly blows at least half a day, by breaking up a morning or afternoon. But in addition there’s sometimes a cascading effect. If I know the afternoon is going to be broken up, I’m slightly less likely to start something ambitious in the morning. I know this may sound oversensitive, but if you’re a maker, think of your own case. Don’t your spirits rise at the thought of having an entire day free to work, with no appointments at all? Well, that means your spirits are correspondingly depressed when you don’t. And ambitious projects are by definition close to the limits of your capacity. A small decrease in morale is enough to kill them off.
08/03/09
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