The clock just hit 6pm.
You’re wrapping up work for the day and now you have a choice to make.
Do you give into your desire open your phone and mindlessly consume, or do you go create something?
Creation, simply, is the act of adding something to the world. Shooting a video, baking cookies, writing a blog post, volunteering at a local non-profit, going to the gym (adding muscles to the world), etc.
Consumption is the act of taking something from the world. Watching TV, reading a book, eating food, scrolling through social media, mindlessly gambling, etc.
The act of creating and consuming are parts of our everyday lives. As a general rule, the more time you spend putting time into the creation bucket, the more you will accomplish overall in life.
Ideal allocation to each bucket will differ for each person and many of us (including myself) struggle to spend enough time on the creation bucket. The late Anthony Bourdain describes his own struggle in a highly relatable way:
“I understand there’s a guy inside me who wants to lay in bed, smoke weed all day, and watch cartoons and old movies. My whole life is a series of stratagems to avoid, and outwit, that guy.”
– Anthony Bourdain
In one way or another, we are all Anthony.
Constantly trying to outwit that person inside our heads who want us to give into our vices.
The best way to win any battle, internal or external, is to understand who you’re up against…
Which conveniently leads us to the 4 different types of creations & consumptions: Great Creation, Experimental Creation, Good Consumption, and Mindless Consumption.
Great Creation
Great creation is simply that, producing something that is truly great.
This happens when you’ve learned the one thing that you’re great at, and you continue spending the majority of your free time doing it.
Few examples:
- Ed Sheeran writing and singing his music.
- Pablo Picccaso creating art (50,000+ pieces).
- Richard Branson building new companies.
- Joe Rogan interviewing on his Podcast (1582 podcasts and counting at time this article was published).
The common thread in for all the creators above is that they found something they were great at early on in life. They are part of the lucky 1% of humanity who found their niche early on.
For 99% of other humans, we are still looking for that niche. So that brings us onto the next bucket of creation: Experimental Creation.
Experimental Creation
Experimental creation occurs when you are producing something new that you’ve never done before. With the proper mindset, this can be one of the most rewarding ways to spend your time in life.
Common examples of experimental creation include:
- Learning any new instrument (such as a guitar).
- Volunteering at your local soup kitchen.
- Painting for the first time in your life.
- Learning to speak in public.
- Starting a blog.
Experimental creation is something that you will spend the majority of your time doing when you’re younger, before you know what you’re good at and what you love.
It’s important to not try anything new just once, but to stay at it until you can say “I know I can do this, but I don’t want to spend any more time on it”. In fact, it only takes you 20 hours to get to this level (based on Josh Kaufman’s research).
No matter how old you are, you should devote some time to experimental creation every week. Without it, you’ll never get the opportunity to try new things that you may love and be great at.
Good Consumption
We are constantly consuming throughout our lives.
Whether it’s literal consumption (food), information consumption (news / books), or entertainment consumption (TV, video games, podcasts, etc.), consumption is a constant. The differences in the quality of what we consume will have a direct impact on us in both the short-term and long-term.
Just think of the consumption we all do on a day-to-day basis: food.
If you choose a donuts instead of oatmeal for breakfast everyday, your health will suffer.
The same goes with the news you consume and the entertainment you watch. Unless whatever you’re consuming provides long-term benefits or if you’re actively enjoying it in the moment, then your consumption falls into last category: Mindless Consumption.
Mindless Consumption
This is the consumption bucket that I try to avoid 100%, yet I still find myself occasionally falling back into it.
Mindless consumption is simply what you do when you have nothing better to do with your time.
100 years ago, it was hard to mindlessly consume anything because consumption items were scare. In our current society though, our ability to create infinite duplicates of digital media such as videos, social media, and videogames, has made mindless consumption a part of our daily lives.
While most of us know we should avoid this, the tricky thing with mindless consumption is usually hidden behind good consumption.
If you scroll social media for 5 minutes, you will find information, updates on your friends lives, and maybe even learn something new. If you continue scrolling for another hour, you gain little more.
If you finish your favorite Netflix series and then decide to start a new show, you will likely pick a show that you never set out to watch. You’re not deliberately deciding to watch it and while it could be one of the best shows you’ve ever seen, chances are it’s not and it will just be a waste of time.
It’s incredibly easy to switch from good consumption, where we place a high value our leisure time, to mindless consumption, when we have nothing better to do with our time. The key is to know when this switch happens.
In summary
Think about where you are in your life and how much you should be allocating to each bucket.
Great Creation happens when you know you can produce something amazing. This is one of the easiest stages to spend time on, but one of the hardest to get to.
Experimental Creation is where you should be spending the majority of your time, especially earlier on in your life. The more you experiment and create, the more opportunities you will get to discover what you will be great at.
Good Consumption: This is a bucket where you make a conscious decision to devote your time. Everybody needs to put some time into this bucket because we all need leisure, and we all need to learn from others.
Mindless Consumption: Avoid this bucket at all costs. It will make you unhappy.