Artists with routines aren’t less free. They just don’t waste energy deciding whether to show up.

Deciding is expensive, and a decision you face every single day costs more across a year than the work itself does. A routine takes that question off the table, which is why it looks rigid from outside and feels like relief from inside. The freedom it buys gets spent on the work rather than on the negotiation about starting.

Fix the time rather than the content. Let whatever you make in the slot stay entirely open, and remove the question of whether today counts for a month.