what kills creativity

Gamers understand grinding as much as anyone (and no, I’m not talking about dirty Jr. High dance moves here). In a game, grinding means performing a repetitive, monotonous action over a long period of time in order to acquire something of perceived value.

Grinding has been in games for a while now and it seems to have only increased over the years. Many online RPGs are built off this concept: maybe you have to fight a bunch of low-ranked enemies just to level up and then fight a bunch of slightly harder enemies.

Perhaps you've got to slowly, painstakingly collect gold or other materials so you can eventually obtain some special item which helps you be better at collecting gold and such.

Or, as with many mobile games, you simply log in every half hour so you can repeatedly tap a button, which will unlock new buttons for you to tap repeatedly. That sort of thing.

But you know what? Grinding is not fun. Ever.

So why do we do it? Games, after all, are supposed to be for our enjoyment, right? From a game designer standpoint, it’s a cheap way to keep people playing your game longer.

From the player’s standpoint, they believe whatever reward they get is worth the effort. But, from my perspective, it hardly is. Most of the time all you’re doing is grinding in order to do more grinding.

Life can feel this way. After all, we call work the daily grind (especially if you’re in a coffee shop). For some folks, they get up, go to work, and come home, with little change in their daily routine. Often the work itself is quite repetitive. I’m not dogging on a consistent and reliable job, but when the majority of your life is spent in repetitive monotony, it may be time to rethink where you’re heading.

Whether we’re talking about games or their less forgiving counterpart, real life (RL at the gamers call it), the grind is precisely what kills creativity.

To grind is to mindlessly commit to the same repetitive course of action. There’s no innovation, no variation, and no inspiration in it.

Creativity, on the other hand, is all about embracing change; it’s like diving headlong into a big rushing river and not knowing where you’ll be swept away. It’s scary, challenging and fun—nothing like the grind. 

But even creatives can fall into a grind. And you know what, sometimes it’s ok, for a time. Even if you enjoy the outcome, some parts of the creation process just aren’t super fun.

Sometimes you have to stick that nose to the grindstone (sure sounds painful) and get a hard job done. Just make sure you have an exit plan, a reason for the grind that makes the trouble worth the effort.

Even then, there are ways to vary the repetitive and laborious work some tasks require, whether it’s hammering a lot of nails or repeatedly copy and pasting text. You could try playing some music and working to a beat. Or maybe work for a time and then come up with a fun little reward to break up the monotony.

Once the grind is over, it should allow you to do something fun and exciting yet again. It should be worth it, even if it’s not fun.

What’s even better is finding a way to avoid the grind altogether: develop a process so the further along you are on your creative journey, the less grinding is necessary.

If your life seems like nothing but a grind, throw in an element of the unexpected, do something new and different, even if it's small and simple. 

Whatever you do, avoid an endless grind-cycle at all costs. Because if all you do is grind, eventually you’ll be ground away to nothing. And that would be a stone-cold shame.

Hey Creatives, has creativity ever felt like a grind to you, what have you done to change it up? Let us know in the comments below.