Free Play Days for Progress Heydays

By Christine Carron

A few weeks ago, I had to manage a seriously heightened level of creative work. Deadlines for my corporate client. Deadlines for some classes I am taking. And deadlines for delivering to the folks in Goodjelly’s programs. All was fabulously fun and engaging work, but for a few weeks my throughput was on overdrive. To pull it off required me leaning way into process smarts, plus lots of focus and energy. 

As soon as possible, I eased out of that intensity surge to a more sustainable flow. One of the tools I made sure to integrate into my weekly plans immediately following that period was a  Free Play Day.

Tool Play

A Free Play Day is one of the tools in Goodjelly’s Jam Toolkit, which is a suite of Smart Process tools, strategies, and practices that helps individuals and teams build unstoppable creative flow. The distinguishing characteristic of a Free Play Day is that you have full permission to do creative work, or not. However the spirit moves you. 

Free Play Days can be used any time you want to flow with a little serendipity through your creative work. As noted, they are also particularly useful to integrate into your planning when you’re coming off an intensive work period. Having a Free Play Day allows you to fully embrace whatever energy comes up. 

Maybe a day of full creative work disconnect and decompression will serve. However, if you’re still fizzing with some excess, amped up creative energy, you are free to let that buzz move you into action. With a Free Play Day, you don’t have to box yourself in one way or the other. 

Free Play Days are also a great way to build trust in your ability to reconnect to flow after taking a break of any length from your creative work. Often breaks are followed by a few progress heydays, as our energy, creativity, and motivation are all boosted by the pause. 

Sometimes even just the true, authentic inner permission to take a break embedded in a Free Play Day—even if you decide not to take the break—will create a little progress heyday energy during and after the Free Play Day. So productivity wins abound no matter how the Free Play Day is actually played.

The Tricky Bits

Free Play Days do, of course, require that you add more buffer into your plans, so you truly can ditch creative work entirely, if that’s the way a Free Play Day unrolls. A buffer will keep your Inner Critic and Inner Perfectionist at bay—as the buffer will allow you to meet all your official commitments for the week even if you take the whole day off. 

There is actually a lot of mindset chops involved in fully embodying a Free Play Day in both practice and spirit. Along with having to ensure your Inner Critic and Inner Perfectionist don’t stomp on your organic flow through the day—even if that means getting no creative work done—you likely will have a pre-arrangement with your Inner Pusher, that part of you who wants you to always be doing, doing, and doing some more. 

A pre-arrangement might be reminding your Inner Pusher at the start of the day, that you officially and absolutely have the option of maxing out on getting nothing done. Your Inner Pusher will probably spend the morning puzzling over that directive and then fully get behind you rocking out doing nothing, if that is the decision you make about the day. Inner Pusher partnership in action!

Let’s Play!

A Free Play Day is a simple but powerful tool to add to your creative productivity toolkit. The invitation this week: Give yourself at least one full-on Free Play Day at some point in the coming weeks in relation to your creative work. 

Maybe you are in a fugue of intensive work and integrating a Free Play Day for your next few weekly plans will be just the ticket to wind yourself down to a more sustainable pace. Or maybe you just want to play with the tool to see how it works for you. Either of these motivations, or any motivation, to experiment with this productivity tool is fabulous in my book. 

Include Free Play Days in your plans with power and intentionality and soon you will have them fully integrated into your creative productivity wheelhouse. When you do, the payoff—and the play—will be ever so delightful. 

Happy day. Happy creating. Happy jamming. You’ve got this!