It’s Motivation Monday y’all, so I thought I’d talk a little bit about adding structure to creative pursuits. I have an overactive imagination, and too often I’m accepting an award in my mind before I’ve created anything in real life. While this is something I’m still fighting against, I’ve run across a few methods and found a few tips to reign in toxic postulating.

Before I go any further, I do want to note that I think dreaming is an essential aspect of creativity. Those periods of wandering thought or crying in the car because of story beats are an important part of my process, but I never get anything done if I can’t move past that stage. And a good deal of my life has been spent in that mental “dreaming” state instead of doing the actual nitty gritty. The work. While we certainly write how we think, writing is an act of creation, of bringing an idea to life.

The long and the short of things is this: find a way to direct the flow of your creative energy and minimize your projects to one or two you’re passionate about. Imagine a system of pipes with flowing water: there is the main line and dozens of offshoots from the main line with shutoff valves at each mouth. Like water, creative energy follows the path of least resistance, so if our secondary lines are all open — some to daydreaming, video games, Quadrant IV distractions, etc. — the amount of flow going through our main line is greatly reduced. But if I shut those distraction valves, my main line maintains a greater flowrate and more water. This is more Creative Energy per hour, and less time and energy spent on things that are ultimately less fulfilling.

While I stand by my above metaphor, it is easy to speak in abstractions. Here are some methods I’ve found and experimented with in harnessing wild creativity.

1. Sticky Notes Everywhere

Anne Lamott, who I adore, writes in Bird by Bird that a writer should record every passing thought that catches your attention. I’ve really taken this one to heart, especially when I’m at home. While a lot of people record their ideas with their phone or a voice recorder, I like the accessibility of a sticky note. I never go back through old recordings on my phone.

When you record an idea, you anchor that idea to reality, even if it is tucked away in a shoebox or tacked to a corkboard. My corkboard has anything from funny things my wife has said to a detailed outline of a fantasy novel. The important thing is that I remember those really good passing thoughts, the ones that I’m drawn to write down right away. Being conscious of those fragments lets me marinate on them longer, breathing more detail into the idea until it becomes something else.

This is also a really good method for solving a problem you’re stuck on. Sticky notes are small, unobtrusive, and give me the highest visibility per idea, which makes me much more likely to read it often.

2. Listen to Songs on Repeat

Tim Ferris talks about this, but this is something I’ve been doing my whole life. Last year I listened to Bo Burnham’s Look Who’s Inside Again over 1,500 times. I’m FINE lol. When we listen to certain songs (especially repetitive ones or songs without words), mantras, and sounds on repeat, it provides a pathway for focus.

I don’t necessarily have the science to back it up, but somewhere around 50% of folks Mr. Ferris has interviewed share this habit. That’s a staggering percentage, and I’m willing to bet it is even higher for creatives. Sometimes silence can be too big for me to focus, so a song on repeat provides a foundation of a pathway that quickly fades to the background. This stimulus helps direct my attention towards my primary thoughts, typically whatever I’m writing. This habit works better than anything else I’ve found for writing.

As I write this, I’m listening to a Silver cover by Astra King. Over and over. It’s dope.

3. Set-up App Timers on Your Phone…and Stick to Them

Listen, it’s 2022. I get it. But whoever you are (including you, Kyle), you spend too much time on your phone. Including wakeup and pre-sleep, I was spending over four hours a day on my phone, and I don’t even think that clocks in high on the bell-curve. BUT THAT’S ABSOLUTELY INSANE. IF YOU SPENT FOUR HOURS A DAY DOING LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE, YOU’D BE A MASTER AT IT IN LESS THAN SEVEN YEARS.

Name it — pianist, streamer, writer, body builder, whatever. You’d be a master at it. But phones are amazing at sapping our attention, which is one our greatest commodities as sentient beings. To what we give our time, we give our attention. But your phone has app timers and screen wellness options buried in your phone’s settings. Use them, and make your kids use them too, if you have them.

When you are on your phone, you typically are doing something with an instant gratification classification, not a long-term one. And you may even have a dialogue or creative energy, but it is fractioned and drained by whatever media you are splitting your time on. I’m not saying not to do these things: there is so much amazing creativity to see on the internet. Just set your phone to babysitting mode and stand by the parameters you set yourself. I think you’ll find more positive externalities in addition to more creative time in your day.

4. Whenever You’re Ready, Start Documenting Your Idea in Reality

If you want to start a podcast, eventually you’ll need to record some voices. It will require writing (potentially), talking, set-up, more talking, and editing and distribution, the real work. If you just sit and think about talking with your friends on YouTube when you drive to work, you won’t find the social success you’re dreaming of. This applies to almost everything and everyone, and certainly every creative endeavor.

But when you start to do the work, start small, and make sure you enjoy it. It will be work, but you’ll find greater satisfaction and more focused creative energy if you stick with it. It’s all about practice and momentum. With enough time, the work will become second nature, and you’ll be able to enter in and out of a flow state more easily.

This is why I think anyone can truly be a writer. Hundreds of authors work or worked in other fields before ever finding literary success. They just worked at their creative endeavors until something took off. Anyone with passion and practice can write an entertaining story if they just stick with it long enough. But those deep ideas won’t come unless you write down the first one. So whatever it takes to take that first step, take it, and let your creativity take you down the rabbit hole.

Whew. All done.

Sometimes I get to the end of one of these things and forget why I started, but today, I think I stayed on track. This is already the second time in a short while that I’ve talked about sticky notes, so I hope that’s okay. Got some exciting D&D stuff coming down the line soon, but I wanted to wish everyone reading this an excellent day. Thanks for taking the time to wander through some thoughts with me, it really means a lot. I hope the wind fills your sails and the sun smiles upon your face.

And most importantly, I hope the demon gods of creativity bless both your mind and your hands. Now get to work. Stay frosty bb.

With love,

Schaboi Kbat