There are two primary modes in creative pursuits. The technical and the creative. It’s best not to mix the two when executing in either mode — you cannot effectively execute either simultaneously because they are like separate gears in a car. You can’t be in 1st gear and 2nd gear.

Let me revise my statement. Creative pursuits are multi-modal, and modes cannot be used simultaneously. We can switch between modes — sometimes quickly enough to deceive ourselves that we are executing in more than one mode at once — but we cannot truly be in two modes at once. This idea is corroborated by productivity juggernauts like Cal Newport who emphasize that multi-tasking is the killer of deep work. We cannot truly multi-task. We cannot truly operate in a simultaneous multi-modality.

Here’s a real life example for me — when I work on a set in Ableton Live and want to come up with ideas for a song, I will almost invariably be faced with some technical challenge that cuts me out of a creative flow. The audio engine will suddenly stop working, and in order to continue any creative flow I must hunt for the bug that is keeping my equipment disconnected or not working. I may have to shut down my software off and on again to get back to a creative flow. Imagine: in the middle of practicing guitar for 5 minutes, sound stops coming out, you have to put the instrument down, wait for for 5 minutes, and pick it back up again. What a bizarre workflow.

There are so many variables in computer systems — operating systems, software versions, component configurations, internet connectivity, hardware connections, etc — that can cause some technical showstopper to creativity. Yikes.

I like knowing that my creativity will not be interrupted by some intermittent or unpredictable technical issue. I write my songs away from the computer. I imagine alongside pen and paper. There is space for the imagination to run free for a while.

Other modes that are separate — and prohibitive — of creative flow include what I’ll call an administrative mode. Sorting files, paying a bill, making an online purchase, responding to bureaucratic emails.

Another mode is the socially distracted mode — I find myself in this mode when I look at social media of any sort for any period of time. My mind is taken out of time and place, put in someone else’s universe, into some future vision, into some historical story, into some strange meme, into a world tragedy — it’s thrashed around context switching from temporal and geographic context, one post scroll at a time. Even after I close the app — my drug mostly being Instagram — I find my mind revisiting the images in what I scrolled through, even if I paid little conscious attention to those posts. The effects can last for hours, leaving my practice sessions or creative flows handicapped by uncontrolled references to such images. Tl;dr, scrolling through IG can break your focus even if you’re not actively engaged in scrolling.

Focused work demands a blank canvas. It operates best in a pure vector. A clean physical environment is another critical factor — no random papers, bills, or other thought provoking to-dos lying around on the desk please. Keep the phone far away — out of the room if possible, on do not disturb or airplane mode. Be wary of physical cues that can distract the mind from the task at hand.

Awareness of these different modes can help us better focus and bundle tasks. It’s a daily challenge for me to creative time and space for each mode and to have transitions between them.