Saturday Lazy Creativity Issue #03: Proven Techniques for Forming Creativity Habits
Saturday Lazy Creativity Issue #03 Hi there, good morning! Here is one short tip to developing a creativity habit. This post takes under 5 minutes to read. The greatest gift you could give me would be to send this to one person you think might benefit from it. If they subscribe, they get a free book and you look like a hero. Don’t we all want to be heroes?
For today's issue I'm going to talk about strategies for building a consistent creativity habit that won't break the emotional bank. There are many benefits of having a creativity habit - some benefits are:
Creating fills you up more than it takes
A life of creating is a fuller life
You become a better problem solver by creating regularly
Your ideas take on a life of their own like little weird children that grow up
There’s a rush to creating that’s hard to replicate (hi, dopamine)
These are just a few reasons. I'll stop there because you probably know the benefits of creating a habit already. That's not why you're here. You're here because you're having a hard time creating a habit that sticks. It's tough! There are competing priorities in your life that you can't cut out. That's okay. Here are a few strategies and techniques to try out to help build something consistent.
Pomodoro Technique - I didn't come up with this strategy, and in fact, it's been around for a long time. It's been around for a long time because it works. It involves working for 25 minutes followed by 5 minutes of rest. Every 5 cycles you take a longer break, somewhere along the lines of 25-30 minutes (or even longer if needed). Try this technique or a variation of this technique, such as 15 minutes on, 3 minutes off.
Time Blocking - this involves setting aside specific times throughout your day and devoting them solely to specific tasks. The best usage of this strategy is to plan out your week every Sunday. Try and find several 30 or 60 minute blocks of time each day to devote solely to your creative work. During that time, give yourself permission to block everything else out.
Task Batching - this technique is an easy way to trick our brain. It's grouping similar activities together and getting them all done. Instead of multi-tasking where you're switching gears constantly, this technique helps keep your brain in one headspace and get work done on similar tasks. This is especially helpful if your work is repetitive in nature.
Support other work - this is a bit different than the previous three ideas, but it's just as effective. If you're not sure how to get started and motivated, spend a little energy supporting the work of other people who do your craft. You'll learn from them and hopefully feel motivated to get to work yourself. Make sure you avoid benchmarking your own progress against theirs and realize they started somewhere too. This technique shouldn't fall off even after you have your own practice. Supporting other work is a great way to keep the ideas flowing and to build a community.
These are just a few techniques to get you started. Try them out and give them a fair chance - if they don't work after a while, try something else. You can always come back for them down the road. A creativity habit is built up over time so find a system that is sustainable over the long haul.
Thanks for reading. I’ll be back next Saturday with the next Lazy Creativity Issue. If this was helpful, please consider passing it along to someone else.
Find me on LinkedIn: Kyle Bernier, MAATC | LinkedIn or on Instagram: @Kyle_Bernier. I sometimes make pretty things.
Cheers,
Kyle