Like it or not, all of us are insane. The more I tried to be otherwise, the more I felt like a child playing dress-up. And this insanity usually applies to our daily routines.

Author Austin Kleon wrote in his book Keep Going:

“One’s daily routine is a highly idiosyncratic collection of compromises, neuroses and superstitions.”

I mean, take this list for a spin from the book:

“Kafka scribbled into the night while his family slept.”

“Plath wrote in the morning before her children woke up.”

“Balzac slug 50 cups of coffee a day.”

“Goethe sniffed rotten apples.”

“Steinbeck had to sharpen 12 pencils before starting his work.”

What becomes apparent is that these routines cannot be replicated. Sniffing rotten apples won’t make you the next great German writer, it’ll only make you look like an idiot with a bunch of fruit flies buzzing around your apartment.

But I do think there’s value in reading about these routines because they’re mirrors that reflect your own weird spins on your creative life.

For me, I can safely attribute all of my creative output (scripting videos, writing, digitally yelling at spam via email) to my inability to get into the shower. I don’t hate the act of showering, but in my mind, it always prevented my day from moving on. Without a shower, I can’t

1: Head to bed without guilt

2: Grant myself the liberty to relax on the couch

3: Chat to someone on the phone in peace

4: Head out of the door without looking like I just blew something up in my home lab

So, the task of showering always looks bigger in my head. And the bigger the task is, the more I procrastinate by:

1: Pacing around my apartment while mumbling to myself

2: Re-reading The New Yorker shouts & murmur clippings

3: Cleaning my kitchen for the 5000th time

4: Re-watching every Fran Lebowitz interview on YouTube

Some people tell me to get on with it, but what they don’t understand is that after 30 minutes of pacing around, strange things happen. Sometimes a video idea would spring into my mind. Sometimes I’d remember to call my uncle who still lived with grandma. Sometimes I’d find myself scribbling down the opening to a blog post.

Our culture is at war with procrastination, but I think my pre-shower rumination boosted my creativity because it’s the only gap in my schedule where I’m not thinking about work or reading. I was simply stuffing around, and sometimes stuffing around is the best way to make art.