There are many different ways to spend time, with very different characteristics.

A quick 2x2 of two dimensions:

Personal vs Shared

Mundane vs Transcendent

Turbulent (Personal / Mundane)

The default state.

Random, reactive.

Never getting time to execute on any thread of creative effort for more than a moment, never knowing what's next.

Nothing of value emerges from this state.

Clockwork (Shared / Mundane)

The common state for adults in Serious Work.

Everyone synchronized to an external clock.

Everyone subverting their own rhythm to the centralized clock of the machine of society.

By being in sync, things that are impossible to do alone become possible.

Always knowing how many minutes you have until your next time-based commitment / meeting.

One eye on the clock, constantly.

Great for execution on plans.

Gives you a background metronome and structure to slot work into, a default forward momentum.

"I have 45 minutes to get A, B, and C done. I need to get started or I'll never get it done before the next meeting".

All of the synchronization and pinned down plans make it hard to adapt.

Many good things emerge from this state.

Flow (Personal / Transcendent)

Entirely in sync with your own internal creative energy and potential.

Disconnected from time and those around you, fully in flow state.

Only possible to get into this state when the muse strikes.

Being ripped out of this state feels like losing a limb.

All great things emerge from this state (or the next one).

Scenius (Shared / Transcendent)

Multiple members of a group in flow state together.

Lost from time and the surrounding system, but together in creative potential.

Massive ripple effects through time and space emerge from these acts of creation.

The highest possible state.

The most important things ever created come from this state.

Transitions between states are very, very hard.

The momentum of clockwork sometimes can give you a "kick" of energy so when the muse hits you you can go.

One way to make sure you have momentum when the muse hits is to have a bunch of pent-up ideas you're just waiting for some time and space to do, so when you finally get the time, you can just go.

The different states are more or less frequent. A ballpark guess of how many hours of humanity's time is spent in each:

Turbulence: 60%

Clockwork: 30%

Creative: 9.9%

Scenius: 0.1%

We can get better or worse at putting ourselves in the right state at the right time.

How can you get out of Turbulent state more often? How can you get more time for Creative?

How can we nurture the potential for Scenius?