Reduce Friction: Produce More with Less Work

For the past few months I’ve suffered from stress-induced insomnia. I lie awake and think of all the things I still need to do. And yet, during the day I’m relatively inactive (a neutral-sounding word for lazy). My anxiety, I fear, is a result of a lack of action. I know what I ought to do–what I want to be– and yet I fail to live up to the promises I’ve made to myself. Promises like: “this year I’ll finally start publishing consistently,” or “this year I’ll finally produce that solo album.” Time goes by and nothing significant is achieved. For a short while I resolve to simply work harder. A few grinding days go by and I’m burnt out, unimpressed with the final product of my work, and ready to revert back to the standard routine. Inertia reasserts itself– I return to procrastination, inaction, and inconsistency. How can inertia be finally overcome?

I recently moved into a new space and have been designing my little corners for work. There are quite a few realms I’d like to become expert in: writing, music-making, fitness, and reading. The problem with having so many hobbies is the above mentioned procrastination, burnout, and inconsistency and how to reduce them to zero if possible. But the problem with most creative endeavors is one has to enter flow in order to make them possible. Flow is essentially this state of self-forgetfulness necessary to properly engage with what you’re creating in a way that appears inwardly meaningful. Someone said “the enemy of flow is thought,” but I think that’s a bit imprecise. I would rather say the enemy of flow is friction. 

We talked earlier about inertia. Inertia is simply “non-action.” In this way thought (or at least bad thought) truly is a form of friction, in so far as it impedes action, but it is not the only form of friction that we will discuss here. Friction can be inner and outward distraction, fear, doubts, lack of resources, lack of discipline, lack of information, lack of space, etc. There are perhaps too many categories of friction to give an exhaustive report here, and I think to even attempt to be exhaustive in our report would itself be surrendering to the spirit of inertia, so let us proceed. 

There’s a little urban legend surrounding many Zuckerberg or Jobsian type CEO’s; this idea that they have a closet full of the same kinds of shirts, and the reason for this is so that they do not waste the precious resource of decision-making on what is trivial. I think this is essentially correct, but there needs to be some qualification. What these types understand that many of us do not is simply that even something as mindless as picking out a shirt to wear is essentially a decision which takes some amount of bandwidth, some amount of time, some amount of energy. And to compress that decision into something automatic is to reduce friction in the most basic sense. There are two things going on here simultaneously– friction is reduced by both not having to think about what to wear, as well as having that article of clothing readily available at all times. For the sake of simplicity I’d like to elaborate on these two fundamental sorts of friction that can be reduced for the sake of creativity– logistical and mental friction. 

Logistical friction is both the easiest to fix, as well as the most commonly mistaken for being the real impediment. In truth, logistical friction is only at most 15% of the problem in cases of non-productivity, but it’s often the easiest to remedy and starting on it can often get the flywheel going. Logistical friction is related to a lack of resources (time, money, energy), space, or skill. If you have no drum kit and no way to afford one, it’s very hard (but not impossible) to become a drummer, and money or rather the lack thereof is your friction. If you have a drum kit but you’re so tired from work when you get home that you can’t possibly imagine drumming right now, energy is your friction. If you work 22 hours a day and the other 2 you know you should be sleeping, time is your friction. If you have neighbors that want to call the cops on you because your cat is “walking too loudly”, that’s space friction. All of these things prevent the would-be drummer from creative action, but none of them are necessarily insurmountable. Hobos play drums on buckets with sticks and actually sound pretty good, so money isn’t an issue for you. Before I worked from home, I drummed with just sticks on my lunch break in my car or at the park. Even when I did have time at home to practice, noise complaints were an issue, so I negotiated a work-from-home situation with my job and was able to get some time alone at home on the weekdays midday to drum while most of my neighbors were away at work. If you live in an apartment and there’s no possible way for you to do what you want to do during any time of the day, for two years straight I would drive my car 20 minutes down the road and set up in a relatively empty (but public) place and drum. Another option is to buy an electric kit– which I also did– once I was able to afford it, and so then space no longer became an issue because it was quiet. Maybe skill is your friction– you have an idea for a song you’d like to play, but your body physically is unable to maintain that beat, but with enough practice you ostensibly could. If that’s the case then skill is your friction, and you have to invest in reducing the gap between what you’d like to be able to do and what you are currently capable of. But obviously you can see that whereas a lot of times you have one resource tied up, another is available to leverage, and even in some cases could be your unique advantage against others. Complaining is useless if your goal is to create– your only solution is to start thinking of how you can reduce friction so you can get to the creative act faster. 

The more difficult form of friction to reduce is mental, and this is where you’ve got to be really self aware. Without self awareness, this sort of friction is impossible to overcome. As we stated earlier, logistical friction is at most 15% of what’s stopping you from creating at any given moment, but it’s also the easiest to remedy. The reason mental friction is more difficult to remedy is because it’s related to the thoughts, ideas, and frameworks that prevent or at least hinder the creative process and also shape you as a person. The problem with mental friction is it’s often invisible, or even in some ways wrapped up with one’s self-identity, and so it can be difficult to rid oneself of it. 

The first and easiest form of mental friction to be rid of is outward distraction. This is anything outside of yourself that interrupts your getting-the-work-done. Jerry Seinfeld perfected this method. He said that when he would decide it was time to write jokes, he would sit in a room and stare at a blank wall. He didn’t force himself to write– forcing it is not usually a recipe for success in the creative endeavor, as flow is what we’re looking to achieve here, and what separates creativity from mere labor. Instead, he said to himself “you don’t have to write, but you aren’t allowed to do anything else.” We are in an attention span epidemic, and even the most brilliant people I know are horribly enslaved to scrolling. Eliminating outward distractions, especially today, is one of the easiest forms of mental friction one can be rid of. 

With that out of the way, we’ve set aside for ourselves the materials and time necessary to create what we want to create. We have practiced to the point where we know intuitively how to do what we’d like to do– all that remains is to do it. But one talks of waning motivation, and all our hard work seems to come to nothing. The myth of motivation is yet another mental friction. Other times artists might call this a lack of inspiration, or meaningfulness, but it is only ever a lack of discipline. A friend once asked me “what should I create?” It was clear from his question alone he had no intention to create anything whatsoever. One has to realize that to talk of “inspiration,” “purpose,” and all other such things in the creative act is to vulgarize what is so beautiful about true inspiration. Discipline is more inspired than rapture, and so the aspiring creative would do well in reducing his friction if he were to dispense with such vain talk which belongs only to sluggards. But you say I do not give you the remedy for this sort of friction. The remedy is to realize that there is only one remedy– action! Sam Hyde once said that creative work is essentially blue collar, and this is true, but few see it that way because they have either been lied to or possess a gross narcissism that tells them they’re above the class of men descended from Adam. No, it’s true that by the sweat of our brow we must earn our bread (unless of course we are content to be among those called “starving”). I once received a question from a student: “How does one finally overcome procrastination?” I eyed him sideways. “Work!” He went away enraged, but so does everyone who has no real intention to create, wishing to be an artist in name only. Oh, would you look now! It seems our crowd has dispersed. This is a hard teaching, indeed! 

Finally, you have the one who has succeeded in all of the previous things, and has indeed reduced or even in some cases persevered through the meanest friction, because his love of his duty exceeds the aching of his bones. This one will sleep soundly only if he can overcome that final obstacle: pride. Pride is the most difficult mental friction, because it is so subtle, ever changing, and even in some cases seems to, if only for a moment, improve one’s output. It’s true, pride is the source of some of the greatest works produced by any artist ever– it is said that all the greats you know were both possessed by a sense of superiority and a simultaneous insecurity. Such is the work of pride– it spurs great men to great things, but deprives us of the greater work they might have otherwise accomplished in spite of their greatness. What do I mean? This is that self-identity which is so intimately tied up with the creative endeavor. It says “what you create says something of you,” and when you inevitably stumble, makes critics say “what he is says something of what he’s created.” Wretched condition! Is it possible for a creator to exist apart from his creation? Do we not debase ourselves with our perfectionism? What has been stolen from man as a result of his pride, his insistence that his work should serve to glorify himself? In ancient times the creative act could be thought of as an attempt at worship of the true God, but today the creative act has been reduced to a worship of the self. What did we say at the beginning? That to enter flow is essentially self-forgetfulness, and that flow is perhaps the most blessed state of the earthly creator. Have you come so close to the goal only to deny yourself what you’ve worked so hard for? Pride is the mental friction that prevents creation for fear of imperfection, for creativity is self-reflection as well as self-forgetfulness. Creativity is a love and appreciation for what has been created and for the act in and of itself.

This mental friction of pride not only prevents our own creative action, but the creativity of others. We stand above them, as it were, as if we were noble-born and of a higher type. We say to them “I possess a different nature, and therefore am required to produce a different work, altogether alien to the race of man.” In this we place immense pressure on ourselves to be something we are not, as well as discouraging what contribution could be made by those with no previously existing self-consciousness. It is my belief that everyone possesses creative potential under the right circumstances, but many of us have been taught either to wait on others to be creative on our behalf, or even that we ourselves are exceptional but require something outside of ourselves to align– some planetary parade– in order for creative action to become worthwhile. 

Did all this overwhelm you? This was not my intention! I almost forgot to mention that information itself can either be a friction or its removal. For once we know, we are responsible and perhaps emboldened to go forth. But if anything I’ve said has overwhelmed you, don’t let it. Forget yourself for the sake of what needs creating.