I’ve begun to suspect that the reason I spend so little of my available time working on my sewing, knitting, and crochet projects is because of the restrictions I’ve placed on myself. The irony is that I put those restrictions in place to make me MORE productive. And you know what they say: Repeating the same action and expecting different results is insanity. Thus, I’ve decided to revise my approach to creating in the hopes that I will, you know, actually create things.
The Current Rule: NO multiple WIPs!
I am a product maker, not a process maker. This gets discussed quite a bit among knitters, but I don’t see it brought up as much among seamstresses. As my goal is to actually finish projects that I start so that I can have a useful finished object, I’ve tried to limit the number of things I have in progress so that I will put all of my efforts into one project at a time: One knitting project, one crochet project, and one sewing project. That’s it. That’s all I’m allowed to have in the works at any given time.
The problem with this approach is that if I don’t feel like working on the one project that I have in progress, I don’t have any other projects to put my efforts into…so I end up procrastinating, usually by going online and looking at other people’s projects or ideas for future projects. The fallacy of my one-project-productivity-push mentality is that if I only have one project, that is what I will work on. However, there actually is another option: To not work on anything. And that seems to be the option I choose most often.
The opposite side of the fence, and the one I am desperately trying to avoid, is having eight thousand projects in various stages of completion and with little hope that any of them will ever be finished. In my early 20s, I would frequently start projects and not finish them; that is what I am desperately trying to avoid. HOWEVER, upon reflection, I have realized that there was something significant about the projects that I never finished – they were items that, once finished, I never would have actually worn. As a 20-something, I knew that I wouldn’t wear or use the finished object, which eliminated my desire to put any effort into the item. I didn’t know that at the time, but now I see the pattern.
Right now, my reason for not working on a project usually involves whatever stage of production I am at – the shirt I am sewing needs the collar attached, and I don’t feel like doing anything fiddly, or the sweater I’m knitting is at the “yards of stockinette” stage and I don’t want to do something mindless. Eventually I will work on these projects because I do want the finished object. But I *do* consider sewing, knitting, and crochet to be my hobbies (i.e., things I do for enjoyment) rather than work, so if they feel like work, I won’t want to do them. My “One WIP only” rule has turned my hobbies into work. So, what is the solution?
The New Rule: Multiple WIPs Allowed*
Obviously there must be some caveats. All good rules have fine print, right?
– There must be variety in the types of WIPs
I’m not a good assembly line sewer. I’ve tried, and it basically exacerbates the issues I have with avoidance and procrastination. If I am going to have multiple projects in progress, they must be varied in terms of techniques and difficulty.
– If I realize that I am avoiding a project because I have decided that I don’t want the finished product, I will get rid of the project.
There is no joy in finishing something that I am just going to get rid of. It is wasted effort, and no wonder I don’t want to work on a project if I know the effort is going to waste. Better to just pitch the whole thing and get on with another project that I do want to finish.
I occasionally read articles and blog posts about lost knitting mojo or “sewjo” and how to get it back. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen an article about what to do if you have the mojo but cannot seem to get yourself to actually work on your projects. Hopefully this nitpicky analysis of my approach to productivity will help some other makers realize that they have self-sabotaged in a similar way, so that we can all get back to enjoying our hobbies instead of accidentally turning them into work that we avoid.
The Irreverent Elephant 