Future plans are easy to make. It’s much harder to know which of my future schemes can solve this journey’s current challenges.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Table Of Contents
I catch myself self-talking more than I’d like to admit.
“If I had a little more time…”
“When work slows down…”
“After the move…”
“When the studio is finally finished…”
The thought changes, but the intent stays the same. Somewhere ahead lies a version of life in which creating will become easier, or at least more convenient.
Sometimes, hope in the future really does make things easier. I know because I’ve lived through seasons when the obstacles were, and are, real.
Perhaps the more important question is: How many problems assigned for tomorrow really belong to today?
What Do We Expect The Future To Fix?
Every unfinished project seems to come with a condition attached.
Stands true for my unfinished projects. Every one of them that is not yet in the can.
Not abandoned. Postponed.
The work hasn’t been rejected. The projects have not disappeared. They are sitting one step farther down the production line, waiting for conditions that may or may not arrive. How true.
The project sits there, waiting for conditions that seem better than today’s. And the queue gets longer.
Sometimes the expectation of the future is justified. Real obstacles exist, and pretending otherwise doesn’t help anyone.
The question worth asking is whether the obstacle is still standing in the way or has become the explanation that keeps the work where it is.
What Is The Work Waiting For?
The production queue keeps growing, whether planned for or not.
Some are blog posts. Some are recording ideas. Others belong to books that are in different stages. And still others are video drafts that have to be reviewed. None of them occupy the same place in the queue.
One post has been sitting for months because I don’t yet understand what it is trying to say. That’s not unusual, because I can sit on a blog for months until the right energy emerges.
There are posts I come back to again and again, waiting. Some wander, others aren’t congruent. There are times I leave with better questions than answers. Mostly leave with nothing.
Song projects are something entirely different. The song might be close. The studio isn’t. We are down to software and interface issues. It’s been a long haul.
Then there are projects that aren’t waiting at all.
They’re waiting for me to decide whether they still deserve a place in the queue.
Waiting For The Creator To Develop
Some projects aren’t waiting for better circumstances. They’re waiting for a better creator. C’est Moi?
That realization took me a long time to accept. My first instinct was to assume something outside me had to change. Time, experience, equipment. Eventually it becomes evident the project hasn’t reached its limit. I had.
Ideas don’t always arrive on schedule. I’ve learned not to dismiss those ideas too quickly. An unfinished project isn’t always a failed one. Sometimes it’s simply early.
I’ve seen it happen with blog posts. It’s amazing how a draft starts out as one thing and turns into another. Or I return to the draft expecting to finish what I started and discover I’m no longer interested. Or pen out 600 words and discover the text was a waste of time.
Draft gets saved anyway. The future might resolve the challenge. Maybe the thought wasn’t wrong, just incomplete. That version belonged to someone else, who happened to be living in my skin.
Perhaps that’s a reason so many unfinished projects survive. They aren’t waiting for the future to rescue them. They’re waiting for the creator to become someone capable of finishing them.
Fair enough.
Waiting For Circumstances
Some projects have prerequisites.
In the studio, if microphones are packed away, cables are coiled in boxes, and the console isn’t wired in, the recording session isn’t happening today. No amount of discipline changes that reality. The project isn’t waiting for inspiration.
Not every prerequisite is physical. Sometimes it’s money. Sometimes it’s another person, or access to a room that doesn’t yet exist.
The future sometimes does solve genuine problems. Equipment is repaired. Money is saved. Collaborators become available. A room is finally put back together.
The challenge is recognizing which projects are waiting for the right circumstances. There is always something else to do.
The Production Queue
An active creative life eventually produces a queue.
A project’s position in the queue says very little about its value. Some wait because another project has a deadline. Others wait because they fit the season better.
My own queue contains hundreds of potential projects. Some will become blog posts. Others may become books, songs, or videos. Many never will. Time has a way of exposing weak ideas.
Their existence doesn’t bother me. The queue isn’t a promise that every idea deserves completion. It’s a record of work that has been considered.
Not every idea deserves to survive. Most of us aren’t Picasso.
Then What?
Eventually, the brushes get unpacked. The cables get plugged back in. The project opens exactly where it was left. The next decision is still waiting.
The future can change the conditions surrounding the work. It cannot do the work itself.
That isn’t meant as a criticism. It’s a distinction. Procrastination isn’t the issue. Understanding why is.
Some projects are waiting because the obstacle is real. Others are waiting because no future circumstance can make the next decision for us.
What Belongs To Today?
I began by asking how many problems assigned for tomorrow really belong to today.
The answer isn’t all of them.
The future does solve some problems. Experience grows. Circumstances change. New opportunities appear.
But the future can’t make today’s decisions. It can’t tell us which ideas deserve another chance and which ones have already served their purpose.
Maybe that’s the real value of an unfinished queue.
It isn’t a list of failures.
It’s a list of questions.
Tomorrow has its place. Wisdom decides what belongs there.
Can We Help You?
What is that project on hold actually waiting for?
Continue The Journey
The Fire of Inspiration: A Journey into Artistic Genius explores the philosophy of Mack-n-Cheeze Music in greater depth.
Thank you for spending a few minutes with me today.
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Because sometimes the wisest person in the studio has four paws.
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