Insights / The creative process

Maintaining balance

The stress level has increased a lot, and my responsibilities tend to grow every year, which is a good thing, and I've personally been having an internal struggle on how to manage that all. But I think I'm finally getting some sort of bearing on it, in the sense where, how to handle feedback and how to make sure your work isn't like super precious and all things like that, things that they teach you in school through critique.

Now in my career, I'm finally able to just really separate and compartmentalise some of those things. But of course, being a creative, you're always putting a little bit of yourself into everything, and that, I believe, should never go away, because ultimately it's your interpretation, and your vision somewhere in there, even if there are some notes and feedback from other people.

Also, not letting work encompass your entire self is a challenge, but I feel that I'm getting a little bit more of a hang on that. I do believe that balance is important, I don't need to be crazy design mode or stressing out about a deadline, things like that. Kind of, checking in with yourself, I think that's really important, and that's something that they don't talk about in school. Because in school you're constantly trying new things, and you're up all night, and doing all this work.

I find that getting good work isn't pushing yourself to that extent, it's almost like, 'slowly' creating is actually something that I'm beginning to adopt a little bit more, and not putting that pressure on yourself to always be 'on' and always execute.