What’s Missing in Your Multifaceted Life?
I pulled my way out of a creative funk with a simple spreadsheet. You can, too.
Welcome (or welcome back!) to Multifaceted, a weekly newsletter about finding delight and direction in a creative life made up of many different interests.
This week, I’m sharing a simple but effective way to discover which aspects of your creativity need nurturing.
It involves mapping out your interests over time to see what’s missing.
Here’s how I did it and what I learned.
(List-makers, spreadsheet-lovers, and data analyzers, this one’s for you!)
About this time two years ago, I found myself in a creative slump.
It didn’t help that it was February – a bitterly cold, dreary time here in Chicagoland.
As someone who’s usually buzzing with creative energy, I just remember feeling blah. Uninspired. Unmotivated. And a little unsure of what the problem was when, on paper, everything looked great.
The previous summer, my husband and I had bought a delightful house in a dreamy location. I got an unexpected promotion at work with a big pay bump to match. I got to spend fall and winter painting and decorating said house thanks to said pay bump.
Around the end of the year, I also closed out a major creative project, freeing me up to work on whatever I wanted to do next…
But what did I want to work on next?
What did I even like to do? 😬
Many of us multifaceted creative folks follow predictable patterns in how we juggle our various interests.
Maybe you dedicate all of your creative energy to one thing for a few years – be it a career or passion project or hobby. Then, when you reach a certain point, you switch gears and focus all that energy on a new thing.
Maybe you’re happiest when you have three or four creative outlets to explore at all times.
Maybe it doesn’t matter how many plates you have spinning, as long as you spend time on as many of your creative skills and interest areas as possible.
My sweet spot falls somewhere between the latter two. I usually have a few projects going on at once. Bonus points for any project that satisfies multiple interest areas.
Now, let’s get back to The Creative Funk of Feb ‘22.
Even though I had a few creative outlets through my job and home decor projects, most of my other interests were collecting dust.
But what were those other interests, again? At the time, they all seemed a little hazy. And that was part of the problem.
What I needed was clarity. If I could figure out what was missing from my creative mix, I could reorient myself around those interests.
That seemed like a logical step toward feeling inspired and energized again.
So, I did what any Type A person would do: I made a spreadsheet!
Across the top row, I listed out all my overarching creative interests.
(There’s a little overlap between some categories, but it’s a pretty good reflection of what I like to spend my time and energy on.)
Down the first column, I wrote the years. I went back far enough so I could reflect on all the chapters of my adult life.
Then, I added a checkmark if I spent time exploring a given interest in a given year.
Because I love color-coding, I also shaded the cell to reflect the relative amount of time and energy spent:
Darker cells represent years with regular, in-depth involvement in that activity.
Lighter cells represent years dotted with one-off projects, short-term gigs, and the like.
Here’s what it looked like in February 2022:
After years spent toggling back and forth between creative pursuits and passions, it was refreshing to see everything mapped out in such an orderly fashion.
And then it was time to analyze the data. Would I find my answers in this neat little spreadsheet?
Here were some of my first few observations:
I apparently like to dip into A LOT of different things at a time. Just look at 2014, 2018, and 2019 – nine out of ten checkmarks!
My college and grad school years were densely packed with my favorite activities. (No surprise there, though – I loved school.)
I tend to step away from certain interests for about 2 or 3 years and revisit them later.
And the main takeaway: 2022 was looking pretty empty.
I only had three boxes checked so far.
Most of the activities I enjoyed had either fizzled out over the years or dropped off sharply.
Even writing had fallen to the wayside after a strong, 10-year streak. (I was doing some editing work in 2022, but that’s not the same.)
Life overall was pretty good. But I wasn't spending time on most of the creative activities that make me me.
No wonder I was in a funk!
Beyond those eye-opening observations, how did my little spreadsheet actually help in a practical sense?
1. For starters, this exercise brought me a sense of relief.
My mysterious slump wasn't really that hard to solve!
With all the changes that had been going on in my life, I’d forgotten to water the plants, so to speak. They just needed a little TLC to spring back to life in no time.
2. Discovering patterns helped me validate my multifaceted creative journey.
With everything mapped out so clearly, I could more easily wrap my head around the creative categories I enjoyed.
Looking at the patterns emerging over a decade or so helped me see that it was totally normal for me to leave some and come back to them later.
3. The process also gave me a clearer idea of what to focus on next.
I could see which interests were waiting to be dusted off and reintroduced into my creative mix.
As February rolled into March, I decided to dip my toes back into art by signing up for a few classes. I did a few online abstract mixed media workshops first, then in-person ceramics courses.
These activities helped get my creative juices flowing again. Plus, they were fun!
Now that you've seen my creative journey plotted out like that, are you curious to see how yours would look?
Open a blank spreadsheet or grab a piece of paper, copy this template, and start filling it in with your own details:
And let me know what you learn!
After writing this piece, I made a few updates to my interests timeline to bring it up to the present day. It's only February now, but if all goes as (very loosely) planned, I might get to check all ten boxes for 2024! 😊
You're starting to think like a mathematician. Yay!
Fascinating that you decided to answer your creative funk questions through the use of a spreadsheet. It reinforces my idea that you are exceptional at bridging the gap between the creative and the technical.