Being a creative professional can be exhilerating. But it can also be frustrating – especially when, like many creatives, you have one of those magical brains that tends to reach for the next shiny thought it sees – even when it’s in the middle of a thought already. While this tendency is part of what makes us so good at our jobs, it often gets in the way of getting things accomplished, which can lead to frustration and burnout down the line.
The easy thing to do is try to fight the tendency. Shut off e-mail, try to enforce XYZ habit that you picked up of of ABC productivity blog, etc. But what I noticed is that, the more that I tried to fight it, the harder the tendency came back. So, I thought, why not work with it? Here is a Very Incomplete List of things I’ve learned about working with your shiny tendencies:
- Know what you’re good at, and delegate the rest. As much as we love to believe that we’re good at everything (or that we have to be), we aren’t. And we can’t be. Instead of trying to fight yourself to do the things that you’re bad at (and waste time, inch closer to burnout, and other nasty things in the process), identify the things that you’re really good at, and delegate the rest. If you honestly can’t delegate, at the very least start the day by doing something that you’re very good at. This sets you up first thing in the morning to be productive, because it gives you an easy win.
- Organize to-do lists by priority. One of the habits that I’ve noticed in my own life is that I will periodically do a massive brain dump of things to do, which results in a super long list that never quite gets done. Rather than doing that, try creating three lists: one for urgent items (no more than three), one for important items (no more than five), and the third for everything else. If you use an online task manager like Remember the Milk or Action Method Online, go ahead and do a brain dump of all your tasks, but separate them into specific projects, and choose the most important things from each project.
- Never multitask, but feel free to task hop. Creative minds tend to reach for the next shiny idea that comes along, and this can cause a lot of problems when you’re trying to focus and be productive. The tendency is to try to do multiple things at once, which usually results in everything either getting done halfheartedly or not at all. Rather than feeling guilty about your brain’s natural tendency to jump from thing to thing, acknowledge that this is the way that your brain works and feel free to do it. However, the important thing is to clearly delineate your focus when you switch from one task to another. If you’re working in one project and need to switch to another, close out the windows that belong to the project you’re switching from. Otherwise, you’ll get distracted, and it will take you longer to do everything. Which brings me to my next two points:
- Every project should be broken down into distinct action steps. Everything you’re working on, no matter how intense or how tiny, is made up of smaller action steps. By taking the time to break out the action steps beforehand, you can work on multiple projects at the same time, by hopping from individual action step to individual action step. This helps maintain your focus, while also giving your brain the opportunity to do what it does naturally–switch from idea to idea.
- Always have more than one project. The longer that I’m in this business, the more firmly I believe that a creative brain dies if it doesn’t have a lot to work on. If you only have one project that you’re working on, the tendency will be to find other information to fill your brain. By always having a specific number of projects to work on, even if some of them are internal (in fact, at least 1-2 of them should be internal; one to grow your business, and one to help you grow professionally or creatively), you give yourself a way to shift gears productively.
These are just a few of the things that I’ve started doing, and so far I’ve seen a lot of progress in both getting more done and feeling better about what I’ve accomplished. What tips have you discovered to keep you focused and productive?