Low Overhead
Low Overhead What does creative freedom look like to you? Is it being able to make whatever choices you want, whenever you want, about whatever work you choose to take on? Or is it something more like living where you want, working where you want, and having the space to never have to compromise your creative integrity? We often think the key to creative freedom is more: more income, more career flexibility, bigger, better, and more expansive. But when we are thinking about freedom, we should also think about less: less expense, less responsibility, less dependence. Everything you add to your life requires some degree of maintenance, which is another word for overhead. More things equals more responsibility equals more time spent doing things other than creating. Lynda Barry once said, “The key to eternal happiness is low overhead and no debt.” By reducing your overhead, you give yourself more flexibility to make choices on your own terms without needing to consider how it will affect all those responsibilities. You gain creative freedom. As creative pros, we must ensure that we don’t take on so much overhead (literal or metaphorical) that it chokes our creative freedom. QUESTION How might you reduce your overhead so that you have more creative freedom?