It happened to me on several occasions that I mixed up todo-list style working mode and creativity working mode, although every single time I was convinced that I did things the right way. In order to boost my creative output I have put several creative items on my daily todo-list and hoped that somehow getting things done and creativity would magically match. Not so! What happened, in fact, was that while checking off my todo-items I would postpone the creative items on the list. They would be postponed to the next day and then to next and so on. Since I have scheduled different creative endeavors on different days, you might already guess what happened. I got my regular tasks done but all the creative items kept piling up. Looking at this pile did not really inspire me to do anything creative at all. In fact, it scared me off. To conclude, during these experiments I haven’t achieved anything creative at all.

In the meantime, however, I have come up with a different strategy to get my regular things done and increase my creative output as well.

Preparation is more than half the battle.

The problem I had with writing the creative items on my todo-list was that they did not match the usual pattern of todo-tasks. For example’s sake I would write something like the following on my list:

• write a song text
• write a short story
• write a poem
• compose a song
• paint a painting

And, of course, looking at examples of such a list, you will understand immediately that such an item on a todo-list is not inspiring any action whatsoever. Such an item is just too big, too scary to even start with. What should you write about? Do you have all the materials necessary for painting? Is everything already set up? Do you have sketches prepared already? Unless you know already exactly what you are going to do, so that doing it is simply mechanical execution without thinking, don’t put it on your todo-list.

For me, the reason why it did not work turned out to be the following one: quite consciously I knew how much time such an endeavor would take, and that fully committing myself to it would cut a significant piece from my day. More importantly this time issue was accompanied quite strongly emotionally with an intensive feeling of reluctance. Therefore I postponed it to the next day. And I focused on easier todo-items on my list, items which I knew I could check off in matters of minutes or at least less than an hour, and before I knew it the day was over without having attacked any of the harder or creative items (I have written a more in-depth article on how to achieve more by creating more actionable todo-lists here).

If you really want to boost your creative output, and I mean not just experimenting with a new medium, but actually producing something valuable and worthy of your time, you have to use a process approach, not a getting-things-done-approach.

Use a process approach to boosting your creative output.

Once you know what it means to write, paint, write songs and song texts you should make it a process rather than a one time thing, that is, you don’t have to finish any piece in one sitting. Tame your creative outbursts. Downtime and time for reflection is equally important to the creative process. The time you are away from your artistic or creative project gives you the necessary distance to see it in a different light. The next time you work on it again, you will be able to see mistakes, improve them and create something even better. Therefore your creative outbursts should become more disciplined.

Instead of putting things like “paint a painting” on your todo-list, reserve creative time on the list: for example, 30 minutes of painting every day. If you institutionalize it, if you make it a habit to do this every single day no matter what, you will move on in your project at an amazing rate. The important thing is not to finish it, but to work another 30 minutes on it, and to do as much as you can in the time allotted to your creative work with full focus. Quite obviously, this works only for creative endeavors that allow this kind of breaks. Fortunately, most creative projects do.

Simply put: commit yourself fully in this time to do what you want to achieve creatively. Write poetry, write song texts, compose music, paint, draw, or write a novel. Of course, if your work flows really well – if you were to be kissed by a muse – and if time permits then by all means keep going.

The quality of what you achieve in this time is more or less irrelevant. You will learn new ways, have new ideas, improve it, reshape it and pick new skills up on the way. Try to be just one percent better and more productive than you were on the day before. This, of course, is difficult to measure, but still, try. More importantly, do this every day.

Preparation is extremely important. Don’s start unless you know what you are going to do. Otherwise just continue with what you worked on yesterday. There is no point to keep reflecting on what you should do, when you have scheduled time for creative action. Consult your idea booklet beforehand if want to start a new project (you can find methods of how to always have enough ideas for starting a new project here). Start with ideas on your creative-list or just continue what you started already. This really is the essential part of the demystification process of art. Creativity is not waiting for the muse. Creativity is skill, craft and work. Just keep working. Be a professional.

Don’t finish the piece if you cannot – either time-wise or idea-wise. Continue the very next day instead. Make it less impulsive but more predictable. If you are not kissed by a muse then stop exactly when you have reached your quota. Tomorrow is another day, and you will have had time to reflect on your creative project. Most-likely you will discover another angle, which will improve your work. Be ready to listen to those insights during your off-time: while taking a shower, brushing teeth, doing errands etc. Always have something to write with you.

Formerly I thought that doing things over the daily quota should not count for future days. For example, if instead of working creatively for 2 hours instead of 30 minutes, this would count as much as just 30 minutes. However I have realized that you exhaust yourself in this way because you do not reward your efforts. Therefore I have introduced, that if I am over say 15% of my daily time quota this will count for the next days quota. This allows you to be much more flexible and permissive while still having an average daily quota of no less than whatever you set your goal to.

Also, time pressure (like 30 minutes or any other fixed time) really makes you concentrate much more intensively, since you do not permit yourself to wander around in your thoughts. If time is scarce your efforts are much more focused.

You might argue that doing creative projects in such a way looks an awful lot like time-chunking or time-boxing (discussed in a previous article on getting more done). In that article I have admitted that this approach did not work very well for me in the past, since it still requires a lot of mental energy to start the time-chunked task. So, what is different here? In the previous article I was describing time-chunking being used for huge, scary and unpleasant tasks. What I’m talking about here, however, is fun and creative but time consuming artistic work. It is work that you, at least in principle, like to do. If you don’t like to work creatively, why would you want to put it on your todo-list in the first place? I did it, because I wanted to increase my creative output, to make it part of my daily habits and things to be done. I did it, essentially, because I wanted more of it. And this is a fundamental difference. It’s the attitude towards the task at hand, which determines if it is a mental effort or not. In my case I don’t have a mental problem, reluctance or block to work creatively, but knowing how long it takes to actually finish a piece of art (painting or short story etc.) I would often not even attempt to start because there were always more pressing things to do. But by chunking the time, and explicitly allowing myself not to finish, I have taken away this mental hurdle, the fear that it would cut too much out of my day.

You also might be concerned that half an hour a day does not bring you anywhere. In order to achieve something great you have to do it full-time, you might say. But, think about it, what’s the rush? Do you really want to be a professional artist? With all the things that this entails? Why not leave it as a hobby, as something that brings you joy and happiness? Something that lets you express yourself, something that comes truly from your inner self. No commissioned work, as many professional artists have to do to pay the bills, but as an expression of your creative being.

Over the course of a month your creative output might not look impressive, but what about a year? Or a decade? Or over the course of a lifetime? What is the point to burn out after the first couple of months when you have a full lifetime of creative endeavors ahead. Start it slowly but do it consistently. You’d be surprised how some 15 minutes here, some half an hour there can add up to an enormous output over the course of some months and years. The key principles are consistency and persistence. Do it every day. Little by little, one step at the time, and you will see, you will be fine.