Lichtenbergian Precepts: Task Avoidance
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It’s been a little over a year since Lichtenbergianism: procrastination as a creative strategy was published, so let’s do a series on the Nine Precepts to refresh our minds about how this whole thing works.
The first Precept is, of course, TASK AVOIDANCE, Job One of the true Lichtenbergian. Procrastination is key to the creative process: by putting off tasks by working on others, you can accomplish great things.
The Lichtenbergian Society (founded in 2007 by a bunch of my buddies to celebrate our procrastinatory tendencies) was as surprised as you are to find that this is true. The very first year of our existence I achieved none of my goals. The ones I can remember are picking up painting again; completing the symphony; completing the songs for A Day in the Moonlight; writing a trio for piano, trombone and saxophone; and getting some pieces done for a couple of choral competitions. I did none of them.
Instead, I completely re-landscaped my back yard into the Labyrinth.
Similarly, instead of completing William Blake’s Inn one year, I spend the year writing a children’s opera about penguins. You get the idea.
It is critical to understand that TASK AVOIDANCE is not permission to squander your time or to miss deadlines (the word ‘deadline’ never appears in the book); our little joke about procrastination as a creative strategy is simply a way to give yourself permission to practice structured procrastination, i.e., prioritizing your goals and rotating through them.
The Precept also embeds the vital stage of the creative process known as gestation: creative work is not just those parts where you are actually painting or writing or composing or coding. It must include those times when you step away from the project and let your brain work on it while you do something else.
As I say in the book, “Put down the sonnet and go get in the hot tub. You can thank me later.”
You can read a whole lot more about TASK AVOIDANCE and how great minds have used it to create their works in Lichtenbergianism: procrastination as a creative strategy.
