Create a disproportionate downstream effect on the rest of your workweek

I’ll never forget seeing one of my favorite rock bands in a sold out arena.

The lights went down. The lead singer walked on stage. And as the audience roared, he grabbed the microphone and made an announcement:

For the next two hours, everything that happens in here has nothing to do with what’s happening out there.

Now that’s how you kick off a concert. His message resonated with me because it’s a reminder that one of the key functions of creativity is dislocation.

Isn’t that why we make things in the first place? To disappear and pretend that the world isn’t falling apart and forget about the fact that we’re all going to die?

It might sound morbid and fatalistic, but it’s true. And that’s okay. Because all of us are just stumbling through this human experience called life, trying to take our joy wherever we can find it.

Making things is our great liberation. If we are given even a few minutes each day to be intensely ourselves, in control of everything, building a different world to express the way we feel about this one, that’s a tremendous gift.

Creating gives us sovereignty and ownership of something that’s uniquely ours. It’s like there is nothing happening in the universe outside of that reality. Even if our work gets criticized, rejected, stolen, or worse yet, ignored, nobody can take away the person we’ve become along the way.

That’s why front loading is such an effective tool.

If you’re not familiar with this process, front loading is putting a greater proportion of your activity at the beginning of the day or week. Doing so creates a cascading effect that has a powerful half life.

If you can challenge yourself to achieve one creative victory before you officially start your regular work cycle, it’s amazing what kinds of dividends that accomplishment can pay.

Mondays, for example, have become my busking days in the park. Weekends were always my time slot for music performances in the last few years, but lately my schedule has been pulling me to play on the first day of the week instead.

And what I’ve noticed is, that single act has a disproportionate downstream effect on the rest of my workweek. Allowing myself those two hours first thing, I maximize my potential for success over the next five days.

It’s funny. Monday was clinically proven to be the most manic day of the week according to a recent workplace study. Apparently people are still getting their brain back in gear and admittedly not getting much work done.

But when you apply front loading as a tool, that doesn’t happen to you.

Thanks to that sacrosanct pocket of creative freedom, you’re ready to hit the ground running.

How much time are you giving yourself to be intensely yourself, in control of everything, building a different world to express the way you feel about this one?