One of the weird things about this on-going Covid-19 pandemic is that the world seems to change every 2 to 3 days. Things you start working on Monday are no longer valid by Friday because the audience they are for has moved on to some other concern. Presentations from the week before no longer apply because some new development has made them obsolete. Time is poured into topics that eventually are expired because the situation has changed all over again.
It can be incredibly frustrating to pour time and effort into something that is considered important on Monday for it to never see the light of day. It can feel as if your efforts are not appreciated and leadership does not know what is happening. Unfortunately, some situations evolve so quickly that there is no way to really know what will be needed. Reaction becomes more valuable than prediction in these cases. Covid-19 is the best example of this that I have ever experienced.
One of the challenges of creative work is that sometimes the process of creation yields nothing that can be used. To a large extent, anything around Covid-19 is creative work. There are no experiences we can draw on as a baseline. There are no templates that fit the situation. There is no consensus about the right way to go about it. Collectively, the world is experiencing one giant burst of creation as we all try to work through this event together.
This means we must all go into every act of new creation willing to learn from what someone else did the day before. We must be willing to let go of things that do not fit the moment. Together, we need to hold onto our flexibility to react to the demands of the day, even if it means starting over every two hours on something new.
Creation is a process just like everything else. Ideas turn into rough drafts turn into edited drafts become final products. But sometimes in that cycle, it all stops. Sometimes, dead projects rise back up again a week later.
Hold onto your patience. Be creative. Be flexible.