Goldilocks and the Three Bears is a story of getting things just right. In the fable, Goldilocks enters a house and sees three sets of porridge. However, one is too hot and one is too cold – only one is just right. She then comes across three chairs but one is too big and one is too small – only one fits her properly. Finally, she goes upstairs to sleep. There are three beds and – you guessed it – one is too hard and one is too soft. Only one is just right.

Austin Kleon recently took this just right idea and formed The Goldilocks Theory. Instead of porridge, chairs or beds Austin applied this to creativity and suggests that creative work happens when one finds a balance between being too happy to work and too depressed to work. I thought it was brilliant.

This theory rings true from personal experience. When I got my offer for medical school, I was so happy that I didn’t study for my final exams. Life was too good to work. But when the coronavirus lockdown hit and I was forced to study in sub-optimum conditions, I didn’t want to any more. Life was too dull for work.

Perhaps all levels of procrastination can be boiled down to one of these two reasons. On one end, sometimes we’re too happily engrossed in another activity to think of work. We’ll work when this excitement dies down. On the other hand, maybe we’re too anxious and depressed to start anything productive. We’ll work when we’re in a better frame of mind.

This theory is useful because if true, we can catch ourselves when we’re being lazy and ask ourselves: which end on the spectrum am I at right now? Is life too good to work, or too depressing?

But more importantly, we can ask ourselves: is this a problem? Because sometimes, it’s fine to be unproductive. A period of mourning may be the antidote for growth; a period of ecstasy may be a highlight for decades to come. Denying one of their emotional highs and lows to do more work is putting the cart before the horse. Isn’t the ultimate goal of work to feel good?

Related: The Parable of the Mexican Fisherman