It can be hard to find time for your own creative work.
Especially the self-directed, personal projects that no one is waiting for.
You still have to do work that pays the bills, admin and invoicing, meetings, pitches. You might have pets, kids or elders to care for. Then there’s the lawn to mow, the shopping to do, dinner to cook. And the scrolling. The endless, endless scrolling.
If we can just get on top of it all, we think, then we’ll have time and space to focus on the work we really want to do.
Except that magic stretch of ‘free’ time never quite appears, and we never get down to the deep, focussed work that’s most important to us. The work that stretches us creatively, and helps us grow.
The solution? Learn how to focus on what matters most.
Pay yourself first
This is a concept that originated in personal finance. Wait to the end of the month hoping there will be money left for savings, and you’re often disappointed. No matter how much you earn, your spending somehow seems to expand to fit your bank balance. (Or beyond.)
So instead, you pay yourself first. You take out a fixed amount as soon as you get paid, and invest it or put it straight into a savings account.
Set it up to happen automatically, and it’s easy to forget this money ever existed. So you don’t need willpower, discipline, or lots of daily decision-making about your spending to build up a nest-egg, a gift to your future self.
Time is much like money.
Despite our best intentions, we spend it carelessly. Or we focus on working harder, faster, more efficiently in the hope that we’ll eventually clear the decks, and have time for the creative work we want to do.
The problem is that every item you tick off your to-do list spawns several more. Even if you attain that much-vaunted in-box zero, more email soon arrives—much of it replying to your speedy replies.
That luxurious stretch of ‘free’ time never quite appears. Even if it does, you’re too exhausted to do anything with it except flop in front of a screen.
So pay yourself first.
Don’t wait for time to open up. Make the time.
Don’t wait for distractions to disappear. They never will, unless you ruthlessly block them out, for an hour or two.
Block out regular time in your schedule to work on your art, book, business, film, music, craft—or whatever else you want to create. Eliminate all distractions in this time, so that you can focus on the deep work you want to do.
Then protect this time and space fiercely, treating it like any other urgent or important task or meeting. Show up for it, without fail. Even when you’re uninspired, tired, or you’re just not feeling it.
You’re building a habit here, learning how to focus.
You’re avoiding the dopamine hit of alerts and messages and ticking things off your list, and you’re taking the drama and decision-making out of creating.
Even on bad day, when you make little progress, you show up and you count it as a win.
There are always bad days.
But if you stay consistent, there will also be good days. Times when you get into flow and the work comes easily. You can’t predict these. You can’t force them. But if you show up regularly, you’ll rarely miss one when it does come along.
For me, this means writing from 8-9am every weekday. I don’t open email before then, or check messages or socials. I never schedule early meetings or coaching sessions. And my family knows not to interrupt unless it’s a real emergency. That time is sacred, mine. It’s often my most productive hour of the day.
I might write more, later on. But even if I don’t, everything else goes more smoothly because I’ve already done what’s important to me, the thing that makes me more.. me.
When to do it
Many of us are at our most creative and inventive first thing, when we’re still a little groggy and our inner critics and perfectionist tendencies are less alert too. But again, we’re all wired differently—and the routines of housemates, families, jobs and other obligations might mean your best time for focussed work comes later in the day.
If that’s the case, you might want to get all the admin, email, chores and distractions dealt with before your scheduled creative time, then switch them off when you do your deep work.
It might not even be every day. Perhaps you only have an hour or two at the weekend to work on personal projects. Progress will be slower for you. But you will get it over the finish line, if you show up consistently.
And how to focus
Whatever time you carve out, here’s how to make it work:
Make it regular
Take the decision-making out of it. Don’t make it optional. Just show up. On time, every time. Even when you don’t feel like it. This might be difficult at first. But make a habit of it, and it will get easier.
Expect resistance
Creative work is hard. And whenever we’re faced with something difficult, undefined, daunting or scary, the most primal, instinctive part of our brain kicks in to protect us from these uncomfortable feelings.
This is when the siren song of the procrastinator begins: I don’t want to. I don’t feel like it. I’ll do it better tomorrow.
Expect it, and you can prepare for it
Decide in advance what you’ll choose to think and feel, and how you’ll behave when resistance arises. Remember that even on a bad day, you might be laying foundations to solve a knotty problem, setting yourself up for a good work session next time.
And even when you do it badly, it still feels better to do some work than to avoid it, yet again.
Minimise interruptions
Make sure friends and family know how important this time is to you. If you have children, pets, elders to care for, make sure their needs are met and organised to give you space.
Turn off your phone or leave it in another room, and turn off your email, messaging or anything else that might distract you.
Stay in flow
If there’s a fact you need to check, a question you need to ask, if you notice you need work supplies or suddenly remember something you need for dinner, don’t stop work. Just make a note, then add it to your task list at the end of your creative time.
Capture new ideas
But don’t focus on them while you’re working. Our minds are brilliant at creating distractions, catching our attention with shiny new things. Just make a quick note of the idea for later, then carry on with the task at hand.
Make it joyful
Do all you can to make your creative time pleasant. Create rituals. Play music, if you enjoy that while working. Light a scented candle, if that makes your space feel more special. Work in a cafe, or any environment you find inspiring. Co-work with a friend, if that helps. Or find a virtual co-working space to keep you accountable. (I often log in to Writers Hour at the London Writer’s Salon.)
Link this focussed, creative time with things you already enjoy. I love my morning coffee, for instance. So my first cup of the day is savoured at my desk, and the second (and sadly final) one comes with breakfast after my writing hour is done.
Make it easy to begin
If you need work clothes or tools, lay them out ready. Reduce as much friction as possible.
As a writer, I don’t need much kit. But if I know what I want to write about in my morning session, I will prepare by jotting down a few bullet points the evening before, or by reading/watching something relevant.
If I leave those ideas to percolate overnight, by morning I can often start writing immediately.
Use bridging techniques
Ernest Hemingway often left a sentence unfinished, so he knew exactly how to begin next time.
I can’t do that; I’d forget what I was trying to say! But I do end each writing session with some brief bullet points outlining what comes next. Or I’ll draft an article, then start my next writing session by revising it.
Respect your rhythms
All hours are not equal. Find that sweet spot when you’re at your most creative, and you have the space to work without interruption.
My peak time is now first thing in the morning, but this is fairly recent. In my twenties, I was a night owl, and wrote best late at night, before going out clubbing. After my son was born, my prime writing time came in those still, peaceful hours after he went to bed.
Experiment. Trust yourself. And do what works best for you.
Make it sustainable
You’re in this for the long haul, so pace yourself. If you have a day-job, putting in a consistent, focussed two hours every Saturday morning is better than working all weekend, then abandoning the whole project after a few weeks because you’re exhausted, your partner is feeling neglected and your friends are starting to forget you exist.
Even if this is what you do for a living and you have more control of your time, you can’t do long hours of focussed work without taking a break. Most research indicates that we can only consistently do about four hours of really deep work in a day. Some of that might be needed for paid work, upcoming deadlines.
If you’re in flow by all means roll with it, and enjoy it. But we can’t do long hours of focussed work every single day. So don’t expect it, push for it, or beat yourself up when you can’t manage it.
Baby steps are better than no steps
Many creators have steadily written novels in a few hours a week, recorded albums, made art that matters or gradually transitioned from full-time to part-time work while building their creative business into something that can support them. You can, too.
Regular sprints, occasional marathons
If you’re impatient with your progress, cancel everything else for a weekend or a few days, and go all-in.
Book a retreat, borrow a friend’s apartment while they’re away, or take a solo trip in which you do little but work. You might want to see this as a secret tryst with your project, an act of creative self-care.
This can really help with reaching milestones in a long project, or moving things forward without interruptions. But please don’t do it too often, and push yourself to burnout.
Be kind if you miss a day
Life gets in the way, sometimes. For all of us. You haven’t failed. And this isn’t your cue to give up.
I try not to miss two consecutive writing days. And if I miss three, there’s something serious going on. Even on holiday, I take my journal. But this wouldn’t work for everyone, and most people enjoy taking time away from their work.
If you have cycles of work followed by time for rest and play or intense promotion, you might want to develop a reset routine to get you back into your rhythms when you’re ready to create again. I write about that here.
You set your own rules. Make it work for you. This is about producing a solid body of work over a lifetime, not beating yourself up then quitting if you miss a session or two.
Creative work is rarely predictable.
We explore new directions that don’t work out; or we labour for hours over one small but important detail. Some days it comes easily; on other days, everything feels like a struggle.
It’s hard to predict our output. What we can measure is the time we put in.
We love the idea of the fickle muse. We wait for our mood to be right, for inspiration to come. But consistency is often our greatest tool.
Creativity is a habit. Give it space to take root, by switching off your devices and creating regular, interruption-free time. Learn how to focus in a world of distraction. Train your brain to come up with ideas and solutions at a certain time of day—and it often will.
“I write only when inspiration strikes,” said the prolific British writer W. Somerset Maugham. “Fortunately, it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.”
What do you think?