Maker \u2014 that\u2019s how I\u2019d like to be known for. But I am also a manager \u2014 my job title clearly says so. Paul Graham, the co-founder of Y! Combinator has written about two types of schedules of the two different kinds of people: maker\u2019s schedules and manager\u2019s schedules. It\u2019s pretty clear from his article that as a manager, whether you are a front-line team lead or a CEO, your working days will mostly be filled with meetings. It is true for me too, as a Senior Engineering Manager at an enterprise software company; my time is mostly spent in meetings, be it 1:1\u2019s, customer research, planning, strategy, agile rituals, status update, or interviews.<\/p>\n
For as long as I remember, as a maker and a manager, I\u2019ve been living a double life, so to speak. I perform my manager\u2019s responsibilities during the day during business hours and my maker\u2019s responsibilities at nights and on weekends. I was satisfied with that because my day job kept me busy and intellectually challenged and my night job (for lack of a better word) kept me creatively fulfilled.<\/p>\n
The other day, as I was listening to this podcast on productivity and creativity, it hit me. It hit me hard. Since Covid-19, I\u2019ve been struggling to feel satisfied with what I do and hence, feel like a maker. Even when I am trying to make something at home, like cooking a new dish or baking, I would be doing something else at the same time \u2014 answering to my daughter\u2019s question about her home learning exercise, listening to a recording of a meeting I missed during the week or something else. Multi-tasking is an enemy of creativity and producing amazing work as a maker. There have been multiple researches and whitepapers done on that topic. As a result, it\u2019s no wonder my maker genes have been feeling unsatisfied recently.<\/p>\n
We are going to have to get used to this new normal way of living and working so I decided to put this guide to help myself and other makers-manager get much needed \u201cmaker\u201d time and more importantly, a sense of satisfaction, during an unprecedented time.<\/p>\n
As mentioned in my article, A Day in the Life of an Engineering Leader, I usually theme my day and organize my calendar carefully so I have at least one day during the week where I could have a block of focus time. I also have other creative outlets and side-projects that I like to devote my time to. More often than not, they are indirectly related to my full-time job as an engineering manager.<\/p>\n
My personal goal now is to have at least four hours of uninterrupted time every week to create. Yes, life is busy and I\u2019ve read well-meaning advice like productivity is not something to be strived for during a pandemic, but I personally need this time to fuel my soul and make me feel alive. As they say, each to their own.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not enough to just reserve the time for creative work, it\u2019s important to understand how your creative energy levels differ throughout the day. While I have been getting up an hour earlier so I could have uninterrupted alone time in the morning, I found that I couldn\u2019t use that time for creative work. My brain is too pre-occupied with what I\u2019d have to accomplish at work to have the headspace to think about anything creative in the mornings. As a result, fostering habits like waking up at 4 am in the morning to do creative work, as you\u2019d have read in many stories and biographies of successful creative artists, does not work for me.<\/p>\n
For me, my most creative time is usually after dinner time, after I had fulfilled my responsibilities of being a homeschool teacher and a manager for the day.<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t know how your creative energy levels work, my recommended approach is to observe what you are doing and how you are feeling at each hour and write them down in a notebook for the whole week. At the end of the week, review your notes, and hopefully, you will be able to identify a pattern.<\/p>\n
Before working from home, my commute time to and fro work was what sparked my creativity. I\u2019d be sitting on public transport, sometimes with my eyes closed, and I would have a flood of ideas flowing through my mind. These days, my commute time consists of walking a few steps from my bedroom to the living room, which takes less than 2 minutes. So I needed to find something new that will help spark my creativity. After a few weeks of working from home, I am glad that I\u2019ve found it \u2014 it\u2019s my daily walk time, where I walk around the neighborhood for 45 mins to an hour, enjoying the nature, trying to be grateful for what I have and filling my mind with creative thoughts. Before Covid-19, I used to walk 5k steps a day at most, but now, I am averaging 10k steps a day.
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