Structure can receive a bad rap at times. People rebel against it, seeking more freedom, loose rules, and more flexibility. But in that rebellion we can go overboard and miss the benefits that structure offer us in creativity, thought, and day-to-day work.
I think what most people miss when disliking structure is how it can offer more freedom when done well. I’ll share a few examples…
In a couple months I’m fortunate to be speaking at Craft + Commerce, a conference for creatives in Boise, ID. I have a topic and a timeline (about 20 minutes) as the starting point for my talk. Next I organized my talking points for stories, tactics, and lessons.
For a 20 minute talk I like to distribute the topics into 3-5 minute sections. I settled on three 3 minute and two 5 minute sections for 19 minutes of talk time (little wiggle room). Now I can fit my topics into this story structure, like so…
3 min – Opening story
5 min – First lesson and tactic
3 min – Story 2 and lesson
5 min – Tactics
3 min – Closing lesson
This gives me more freedom in deciding which topics to place into each 3-5 minute slot. If I try to stuff too much in it will affect other sections and ruin the flow. The structure offers balance and leads to a better talk.
In my productivity mastermind earlier this year (don’t worry it’s coming back) we talked about structure in writing and exercise. There’s a structural trick to each that helps you make progress. It’s measuring task vs. time.
Task structure means you’ll work until the task is completed. In writing this could be a word or page count. Stephen King famously writes 6 pages a day so he can have a 360 page manuscript ready in two months. You work on the task to completion regardless of the time.
Time structure is what it sounds like, you work for a certain amount of time regardless of the number of “reps”. In exercise this means running or cycling for 30 minutes regardless of how many miles you complete.
In his book Draft No. 4 John McPhee describes how he structured his notes and research by typing everything up, cutting up different themes and topics (with scissors). He would then divide each part of the essay or book into a manila folder and go one-by-one through each until the structure was just right. From pages 35-36…
If this sounds mechanical, its effect was absolutely the reverse… every organizational aspect was behind me. The procedure eliminated nearly all distraction and concentrated just the material I had to deal with in a given day or week. It painted me into a corner, yes, but in doing so freed me to write.
John McPhee, Draft No. 4
The simple structure of a bullet journal is what drew many of us to incorporate it in our lives. The bullets help us “put the organizational aspect behind” and focus on applying creative thought to the work.
As you go into this week, look at areas of your life as opportunities for structure and routine. The real reason for this is to reduce the cognitive load of decision making. By using less mental energy for structural decisions you free up space to be more creative and present in work and life.
Photo by Hannes Richter on Unsplash