5 Daily, Healthy Habits for Creatives
Stay productive, stay focused
01/05/2020
As creative people its VERY easy to get distracted, off track, unmotivated (or demotivated depending on feedback or lack there of). So here are 5 lesser-known habits that I have found help me keep my creativity flowing and focused on my goals.
I hope they help you too.
Nicola xx
5 Daily, Healthy Habits for Creatives
1. Don’t Lose Focus (Part One)
Write down your goal and put it somewhere (like on the fridge) where you can see it EVERY DAY.
It is very easy to lose focus when you put your heart and soul into creating something but get a less-than-excited response from the world when you share it.
Having your ‘why’ up on the fridge helps you stay on track.
2. Don’t Lose Focus (Part Two)
Our minds as creatives, are full of ideas… and then some! These fuel our ambitions and creativity but can also distract us and cause us to want to move in a million different directions.
Using a tool like Evernote (its free!) is a great way to stay focused because you can dump all of your ideas into a seperate digital notebook and use them later, instead of letting them distract you at present.
3. Do the Practice First
Noone needs to tell a creative person to spend time painting or drawing or writing music or singing etc… we do that naturally.
What we DON’T do all the time however, is practice the things we need to improve.
So do it first up.
Spend 5 -10 minutes (yep that’s all) drawing eye shapes or practicing that difficult scale. Sing the hard notes in that song or brainstorm a bunch of lyrics if words have been illuding you for ages.
Do the ‘hard stuff’ first and you will find you improve a lot faster.
4. Create One New Habit At A Time
Let’s face it; we don’t always do things by halves. We get ourselves worked up and thing, ‘Yes! I’m going to change my whole life and it will be amazing!!!!’
So we set out to lose 10kgs, say that we will draw a little bit every day, we will wake up at 7am daily and go to bed before 12am… blah blah blah….
…and you end up creating no new habits and falling back into the same old routine.
You see, creating habits takes time and work. So it makes sense to just try to create one new habit at a time.
Start with ‘practicing for 10 minutes a day on the piano’ and that’s it. Don’t try to change anything else in the other parts of your life, just focus on creating that one new habit and chances are, you’ll achieve it.
Then move onto running 50kms a day, every day, 365 days of the year.
5. Maintain Your Balance
Hands up who has spent an entire weekend (or longer) holed up at home working on creative projects?
Yeah… I hear you.
Sure its a good thing we enjoy our own company but too much of a good thing can be bad.
You need the external inspiration that watching a gig or seeing new art gives you. You need to get out and exercise and spend time with friends even though its going to interfere with you finishing that all important piece TODAY.
You’ll find that your creativity will continue to flow as you gather more ideas from the outside world, and you will be happier and healthier physically and mentally for keeping the balance… and interestingly enough, your productivity will go up even though you have slightly less time.
I hope this blog post and video helped you. If you have another creative habit that you feel helps you be more productive, please share it in the comments below.
Nicola x
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Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey is worth reading
I’ve read this and it’s a great book! Thank you for sharing xx
Thank you Nicola. You are awesome !
Thank you for the inspiring video……I think we could be good friends. Keep your creative juices flowing, keep sharing, stay well!
Thanks Jill! I will and thank you xxx
Thanks Nicola this helpful
You’re welcome! Glad it helped 🙂
Thanks I wrote these down and the one healthy habit I like that you mention is to make my list of goals and place them on my fridge in view where I can see them everyday. And to stay Focus.
That’s so good to hear! I keep mine on the wall right next to my computer where I work so I see them EVERY day. It really helps when my head starts getting filled up with new ideas and it reminds me to stay on track and calms my brain down.