This is NOT how I work, but….! I do have a sense of when something is ready to be made or rather let go of. Rarely, but sometimes!
“Once upon a time there was a Chinese carpenter whose work was so extraordinary that the Prince of Lu called him in and said to him, "These things you make are so perfect that it does not seem possible that any human being could make them. Is it true or is it not true that in your work you have superhuman assistance?" And Ching, the carpenter, who was a very humble man, answered the Prince of Lu something like this: "First of all, when I am to make some cabinet or box of great quality, I separate myself from the world for two days. At the end of that time, I am no longer aware of title, dignity, or estate, so that no matter for whom I am making this box, I am just making it for a person. There is no longer any glamor, no longer any sense that I must make a better box because a great nobleman has ordered it. Then for two days more, I relax and meditate, and I come to the conclusion that it is of no consequence whether the box is good or bad. I no longer fear that my work will not be sufficient; I no longer hope that it will be outstanding. I have lost all interest in whether I am praised or blamed for the thing I have produced. Then, in two days more, I am no longer aware of myself. I no longer care whether I exist or not. Gradually, that part of my mind that is naturally and usually devoted to personal concerns is relaxed away from these, so that I no longer know that I have a body or that I have hands or feet. Everything becomes very quiet.
All this time I have been visualizing what I am going to build, until finally there is nothing but visualization and the object.
Having attained this degree of internal rapport with value, I then go out into the forest, or wherever the materials for the obiect are to be found, and I wander about until I find my piece of work--my box or cabinet or screen- somewhere within the body of something that already exists. I look at a tree and I say, 'There is my box? I look at bamboo and say, There is my screen.' And I am aware that I am going to move the box that is already in the tree out of the tree where it can be seen. Then I sit down quietly with all my materials, and I allow Heaven to put the box together. When Heaven puts the box together, the seams are perfect. When men put a box together, the seams are not perfect because a man will say, This seam is better than that seam,' or, I must make a good seam,' or, 'Will the purchaser be pleased with the box?' Thus all things come to nothing. But I am concerned only with the fact that Heaven makes a box, and the box that Heaven makes will please Heaven, and if I am fortunate in all these matters, the box I have made will cause the Prince of Lu to say to me, 'Did you receive superhuman help?"»
From “The Flowing Bridge” by Elaine McInnes