Your “creative self” is hiding
The reason you find it so hard to stay consistent with your creativity is because, for years, your creative self was told to stay in the corner, to not take any risks; to only speak when spoken to.
How I (finally) overcame a lifetime of writer’s block
On December 31, 2021, I published my 465th blog in 465 days. I successfully wrote and published an article every single day for an entire calendar year—plus one hundred days on top of that. But it wasn’t always like this. I used to be a serial quitter.
You are your own worst customer
It stands to reason that high expectations reduce the amount of satisfaction we feel in our work.
Don’t buy the boat (rent it)
This is what we do with the Creative Consistency Challenge. We essentially “rent” an identity for a short period of time to see how it affects our lives.
Beware of temporal landmarks
Temporal landmarks are beginnings and ends of arbitrary periods of time. A new year, the first of the month, Mondays.
Is perfectionism… dangerous?
We hear perfectionism described a hundred different ways. Rarely do we hear it described as dangerous.
The superhuman feeling wears off quick
You know that feeling, right? When you incorporate a new productivity habit, you see everything you’re accomplishing, and you feel invincible?
One little corner
Every time I start cleaning, ever since I was 15 years old, I start humming a funny song called One Little Corner. It’s ostensibly a cleaning song for grown-ups. The accidental genius? It’s spot-on with habit research.
Five minutes of motivation
If it seems like someone has everything figured out, go look under their bed. If it looks like someone has their life all together, look at their inbox
The downside of consistency
There’s one downside about the idea of consistency that isn’t talked about enough.
You don’t need heroic willpower
“The people with the best self-control are typically the ones who need to use it the least.”
Steal the productivity system I’ve used for more than three years
It’s a grid of eight boxes, with a few scattered titles, bullet points, and lines on it. It helps me reduce stress, improve my health, stay productive while I work, remember my long-term projects, and achieve work-life balance.
I blogged every day for the last 100 days—here’s what I learned
Today is the 100th day of the year, and this is my 100th blog in 100 days. Here are four things I’ve learned.
Don’t let a bad day knock you off the track
Something interesting I’ve discovered while taking on daily challenges is this: about once every six weeks, I really don’t want to do the work. Today is one of those days.
Acceptance is its own verve
“Is this tennis? Grinding for a year and a half, and then you lose to a guy who has a knee brace on?”
Streaks reduce the need for decision-making
One of the darkest places creative people can go in their minds is asking themselves whether or not they should create today. We consider a few ideas, thinking of what to create. None of them feel good enough.
We call it paying attention for a reason
The idea of “decision fatigue” is common in popular science right now. The theory goes that we only have so much mental energy to give to decision-making, and when that decision-making energy is depleted, we are more susceptible to “make choices that seem impulsive or irrational.”
What people say about the 15-Day Creative Consistency Challenge
We just launched the second cohort of the 15-Day Creative Consistency Challenge. Each day, a small group of artists and creators will share one creative deliverable on a supportive community platform. There are daily lessons and creative prompts to get the juices flowing.