Extreme Productivity
When Pablo Picasso died, it has been calculated that he had produced hundreds of thousands of artworks, including over 10,000 paintings, 100,000 prints, 34,000 illustrations, hundreds of thousands of drawings, and many hundreds of sculptures, ceramics, public artworks, along with — amongst other things — sets for the theater, costumes, a play, ongoing political activism, and two collections of poetry. At his peak, Picasso was producing 6-8 paintings a day - “masterpieces” that would not only grace the finest museums in the world, but which were important and new innovations in his field.
If we are to look at extreme productivity and how to achieve it, Pablo Picasso would be a great place to start. To merely complete one masterpiece in a lifetime would be a great achievement, and Picasso was able to do it many times in a day. What’s more, Picasso’s routine was often to work in only part of the day (the morning), reserving the afternoons for extended lunches, siestas, swimming, and attending bullfights. Let’s not forget his many mistresses, also taking up a considerable amount of his time! Incredibly, much of his early work was done with a terrible diet, accommodation that was barely sufficient for survival in the winters, and without any sort of social safety net or governmental support. Out of such poor resources Picasso was able to single-handedly produce many billions of dollars worth of output.
What can we attribute this amazing success — at least in terms of work productivity? Of course it would be due to many factors, including, it has been mentioned, childhood factors, genes, a productive local environment, patrons, and perhaps a predisposition to obsession. However, one big clue may come from a reading of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a complex psychological tool. Using just an aspect of CBT might reveal some insights we can use for increasing our own output - be it in the workplace or in any aspects of our lives.
The average person — live the average artist may wish to achieve an outcome - let’s say to create a world famous, or at least important, painting. This might be similar to any of our goals we put off: such as to write a book one day, complete our house renovations, or to undertake something that will give us extra opportunity for promotion at our work.
The amateur artist (as with us) may have already set up the “rule” that would get in the way of the very goal we wishe to achieve. A strong goal may become too strong, in that it becomes a bar that can never consistently be reached. Also known as perfectionism - any type of over-rigidity reduces an ability for us to finish an activity, experiment along the way, and learn from the process to move on to greater things.
It has been said that “creativity is the ability to allow us to make mistakes. Art is knowing which of these to keep“. This is a folksy way of saying that art (or any type of endeavor) necessitates the completion of sub-standard results, from time to time. Completing things in this way not only allows us to assess our efforts. It also widens the range of options we have for ourselves, and short-circuits any overly critical self-blocks that get in the way — of true, childlike productivity.
If there is one attitude we could say was central to Picasso’s world view and his art, it would be that he hated rules. A skilled draftsman, he achieved success when he chose to develop beyond the formal rules of drawing and representation, to create — along with his friend Braque — abstraction. Picasso’s breaking of rules were paramount to all of his artistic development, such as collage (”do not stick things to the canvas”), his minotaur series (”do not use imagery from the artistic past”) and sculpture (”do not use everyday objects in serous sculpture). Infamous also were his challenges to societal “rules”, be they of the Nazis (who controlled Paris where he lived during World Wart Two), or to the Surrealists - an important artistic group of the time that Picasso shared artistic concerns, and could have easily joined. Other, more traditional “rules” (that many of us may agree with) were — fidelity, marriage, and fatherly responsibility.
Perhaps it was merely confidence that enabled Picasso to escape the doubts that plague the rest of us. But, it is interesting to surmise that Picasso’s hatred of rules generally enabled him to overcome the obstacles that prevent us from achieving true radical productivity. It is possible that he was preconditioned to reject rules, even set by himself. No internal — or external — blocks were allowed to limit what he was able to achieve. This included high quality control that a perfectionist might set up (and get in the way).
So, how do we set up (in CBT terms) the type of attitude that enables a Picassoesque attitude to work? Considering the possibility of a “middle way” might be one way to visualize such a solution. In an extreme view, we might think that everything we do must be perfect, or “world’s best practice”, as it is often termed. This is an admirable goal, but as we have seen above, ultimately counterproductive. We are human, fallible, and need to include in our calculations the surety that we will, at times, fail. The other extreme is just as unhelpful. In it, we might then think that we need to lower our standards, to allow things to leave our desks that are below par, to achieve maximum productivity
What, then, is a productive “middle way” that avoids both extremes? Cognitive Behavioral Therapy encourages us to pay attention to, and to slightly shift, the internal dialogue we ourselves use. Instead of using “rule-like” words like “I must” or “I need to” or “I should” — try submitting some new terms. Such terms may be things like “I’m going to try to (achieve world’s best practice)”. Or, “I’m working towards“, or “I’d like to“. Such terms avoid constrictive “must” limits, and also sloppy standards. They push us consistently towards higher standards, whilst writing in the inevitable outcome of failure along the way. Thus we are assured of not just productivity, but eventual success.
Using such Cognitive behavioral Therapy terms will enable you greater flexibility and productivity in your working methods. They may not make a Picasso out of you, but they will go a long way to creating a Picasso-like attitude to your own possibility of greater productivity.
Your thoughts?
