Cutting out time for those creative moments

In my last post, I suggested based on Daniel Pinks theory of motivation that we need to free ourselves from algorithmic tasks to make more time for truly creative thought, as this will bring about breakthroughs and self motivation.

The reality is that dishes still need to be washed, e-mails answered, and calculations for building control collated and issued.  In other words, we will always have uninspiring tasks that can't be outsourced or automated that are still critical to success and well-being.

The key is that we do automate and outsource as much of it that we can, and through this maintain an appropriate balance of algorithmic and heuristic work.  I suggest the ratio be roughly 20-80%.  If we can spend just 1.5 hrs a day on answering e-mails, checking bar bending schedules, filing etc, and fence off 6.5 hrs for the really creative and fulfilling stuff, which includes collaborating with others, learning something new or exploring options to a design problem, then I'm sure we will provide significantly more value in the long term.