Want to get more done? Start here.
First we need to get clear what productivity is, for creatives. (And what it is not.)
If you’re busy 24/7, you’re probably not as productive as you think. Creative work needs deep focus, with rest periods in between to replenish your energy – and your attention.
Real productivity isn’t ticking minor items off your to-do list, and rushing from one trivial task to another. It’s about working on your high-impact tasks, more often, and getting key projects over the line.
What are high-impact tasks?
Those that move your creative projects forward, or bring you closer to being the person you want to be. It’s when you do your verbs: writing your book, making your art or music, practicing and performing, honing your craft.
It’s also sharing what you’ve created, telling people about it, and offering your art, products and services to your audience.
Perhaps it’s also about changes you want to make in your life: to become fitter and healthier, more organised, more willing to market your work and ask for what you want and need.
These are also usually the most aversive tasks on your list, because they’re difficult, sometimes scary. Which are two of the key triggers for procrastination. (More about this in Why we procrastinate.) Learning to prioritise your more aversive tasks is essential.
Productivity is not:
- Busywork: answering email, returning phone calls, doing non-urgent admin.
- Endless scrolling in the name of research.
- Talking about work you’ve yet to make, or services you haven’t yet offered
- Putting everyone else’s needs before your own creative work
- Ticking easy items off a to-do list
- Colour-coding your filing system, your books, your sock drawer.
- Doing one more bit of research, prep, training is fine. Important, even. But if you’ve been doing it for weeks, months, years and never actually started work – that’s procrastination.
We don’t need conditions to be perfect.
We sometimes convince ourselves that we need more time, space, equipment, research, preparation, training. But it often helps to start before we’re ready. We learn so much in the making, the doing, the process.
Don’t try to clear the decks, get everything else done, and hope that some magical clear stretch of time opens up when you can get on with your creative work.
Creativity isn’t separate from your life; it’s part of it.
Productivity can be different for creatives.
Sometimes, our work doesn’t look like work.
We need time and space to explore, play, day-dream, think, to go swanning about with no real goal or aim in mind. We need good inputs: books, films, music, art, conversation, performances and talks.
This is where new ideas come from, what will eventually cause that sudden flash of inspiration. Without it, the work can come to feel empty, grey, boring, difficult.
When does this thinking time tip over into procrastination? Only you know that.
Balance can also be different for creatives.
It can sometimes be less about perfectly balanced scales, more like a see-saw tipping from one extreme to another.
There are times when we need to be all-in on a project, and we’ll neglect other things to hit a deadline, get to the next milestone, or to get it over the finish line.
Once we’re done, we need to apply to the same focus to our family and friends, to the parts of life we’ve temporarily neglected.
This is when you tidy your home or workspace, catch up with friends, nurture your relationship, spend quality time with your family, and replenish for the next stage of your creative project.
Resources to help
Some posts and resources on this site, to help you get more of the important stuff done.
- Why most productivity systems don’t work for creatives. We need two modes of thinking. Most systems for getting things done only make room for one of them.
- The best productivity books for creatives: a list of books I’ve found helpful.
- Power up your productivity with a weekly review.
- My best productivity tool is a cheap plastic timer. Here’s how I use it.
- Escape the productivity trap. Accept you’ll never get on top of it all, and do what’s really important instead.
- Let go of FOMO, and learn to set boundaries with time-thieves.
- Eat that frog. Avoid the drag of dread. Do the hardest thing first, and your whole day goes better.
- The ONE Thing: less is more, when it comes to getting things done.
- Time management for creatives
- Ritual, routine, and getting into flow. What Florence Welch and Natasha Khan can teach us about getting creative.
- Get creative work done, with marathons and sprints
- What to do when life gets in the way. Because it will, for all of us.
- A surprising productivity tip. (Stay in bed all day!)
- Why you should indulge your curiosity and go down that rabbit hole. Sometimes, at least.
- Do the maintenance: how to deal with the admin of running a business – and a life
- Think like a CEO, especially if you’re a company of one. How to step back from your daily tasks, plan for the longer term, and see what’s working for you and your business.
- Adults still need to play. Especially creatives. .
Short productivity tips:
Procrastination, and what to do about it
- Stop procrastinating. Now.
- Why we procrastinate
- The six triggers of procrastination
- Still procrastinating?
Can I help you?
Creative work can be lonely, as well as hard. And there are no one-size-fits-all solutions to getting that work done. A coach can help you experiment and create a routine that works for you and your life – but only if they actually get how your industry works, and understand creative process.
If you’re interested in seeing if I can help you, I do four introductory one-to-one sessions each month, for the special price of £99. Read more here about what to expect from a session, and why I charge for this when many coaches offer free ‘discovery’ sessions.
Or just click here to apply. There are some questions to answer first, as I want to make sure you’ll get the most out of our 90-minute session.
Thank you for this site. I’m hoping to learn more.