Making your 2026 more productive than 2025... the Lichtenbergian Way!

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This is the third of four posts for those who were disappointed in their creative output last year. While “failure is always an option” in Lichtenbergianism, you want it to be part of an ongoing process that loops you back into getting work down, not a dead end.

To recap:

  • For each Precept, I’ll link to that Precept’s explanatory page for anyone who hasn’t read the book or been around here for very long. (Each page is only a couple of paragraphs; you’re not getting into Being and Nothingness here.)

  • I’ll give you some journal prompts to consider and then answer in your WASTE BOOK. Propose a solution if one occurs to you. Yes, this is an assignment.

  • Finally, I’ll give my own assessment of my work habits for this past year.

RITUAL

Read about RITUAL.

  • Did you in fact design/use a RITUAL to get you into the Space where you do your work?

  • If you had one but it didn’t work for you, did you create a different one?

  • Maybe the RITUAL didn’t work for your schedule or your resources. Think about what would make your time/space/mind be “perfect,” make you want to Make the Thing That is Not.

Me: This is where I have failed the most — I haven’t used RITUAL to protect my time and space. Consequently I have not accomplished as much as I could have this past year. Solution: Reestablish a time RITUAL, to wit:

Every morning —

  • Check email/social media with my coffee, no more than an hour.

  • Blog if I need to.

  • Watch another video lesson on transitioning from Finale to Dorico.

  • Short break.

  • Shut down the browser.

  • Apply the lessons from the video, 15–30 minutes

  • Work on actual music, 1–1½ hours, or on the CREATE•U scripts

  • After lunch, get out of the study and read/write/whatever.

Turn, turn, kick turn — yes, it will work!

STEAL FROM THE BEST

Read about STEAL FROM THE BEST.

  • When you were stuck, did you look for how others worked on the same problem?

  • Have you tried reverse-engineering the work of someone you admire, literally using the same techniques/strategies they did, to create your own work? (I am reminded of how visual art majors will sit in a museum and literally copy the painting in front of them.)

  • Are there forms — e.g., sonnet, sonata allegro, 3-point perspective — in your chosen field that might be useful?

Me: No problems with this one. While writing Ten Little Waltzes, I was constantly scribbling down rhythms and shapes of melodies from music playing from my classical music collection, in order to serve as a framework, a pattern, for a little waltz. Also, you may recall that I stole the opening/closing theme of “10. Finale” from my own unfinished Symphony in G.