Too many notebooks

Is there a limit to creativity?

Recently, I became concerned that I might have too many notebooks. That’s right, in the face of this chaotic and unpredictable world, my brain decided it was critical to take inventory of my office. If you find yourself assessing the quantity and quality of the various idea repositories in your life, you too may be a creative.

Off the top of my head, I thought I had four notebooks in circulation, but when I counted, the number was actually six. Add in all the project notebooks for various things (in various stages of development), and that brings the total number of notebooks to well over a dozen in use at one time, though not every day.

For a moment, I was afraid this was bad news. What if doing so many things at once means I’m not doing anything well?

It’s easy to question how we should direct our energy as artists. I use a bullet journal to try to plan and allocate time, but the plans often go out the window as I’m pulled in different directions. I’ve tried working on one project at a time, but my brain ends up hopping around. It seems to crave diversification.

I’ve been trying to understand my own needs better, and to spend my time in ways that nourish me. Recently, I did a thirty day challenge to change one small habit that would make me feel more prioritized and loved. A month later I was happily washing my face every morning, and I haven’t stopped yet. I tracked my progress in my self healing journal, which is a space purely for me and my needs as a human being.

For a while, I tried not to hop between projects, but it seems the more I create, the more I want to create. Ideas are bursting out of me at all hours. I have a dozen projects in the works and a couple of new businesses underway. I draw on everything (recipes, notes, post its, envelopes, books, you name it). Creativity is not a skill or a calling, it is the natural state of human beings. We are endlessly curious, but our modern, capitalistic world wants us to forget about that and make money.