10 Ways to Increase Your Creative Productivity

I’m nearly finished writing my sixth book (this doesn’t include those I’ve ghost-written), but one thing has remained consistent with every title I’ve penned. Actually, this pattern has affected every career or creative endeavor I’ve pursued. In talking to my colleagues and peers, I know I’m not alone.

I’ve discovered you can count on the pull of distractions threatening to hamper your work.

So how do you protect your productivity when life clamors to get in your way? I’ve found exercising intentional practices helps me maintain momentum. The following 10 powerful ways will increase your creative productivity—no matter what dream you want to achieve.

1. Schedule your creative work as an event on your calendar. If your dream is a priority, formalize your intent to make it reality by putting it in black and white and add a time stamp to hold yourself accountable.
2. Prepare in advance. The evening before, fix energizing food and drink that will provide convenient and easy sustenance. Lay out comfortable clothes to help you get right to work. Make sure all of your tools are organized and ready. Then get a good night’s rest. (I use a touch of lavender essential oil to help me sleep deeply.)
3. Keep your word. Often, we are mindful to keep our promises to others, but don’t think anything of breaking the vows we make to ourselves. When you tell yourself you are going to work on your dream—just do it!
4. Create your own creative cave. When I started out as a professional writer, speaker, and coach, this was a very specific place in my house. For me, the word cave fit, because my room was first located in a basement bedroom. There were no windows, it felt isolated, and frankly, I had to force myself to stay in what often felt like a dungeon. But by practicing discipline, I learned something important—I can work on my dreams anywhere. Whether you need space to strategize, put materials together, send queries, or do anything else productive toward making your dreams come true, a creative cave tells you and others how serious you are.
5. Clearly communicate creative rules to family and close friends. When I started following my inner passions, my loving peeps did not consider it a serious endeavor at first. To some, working from home meant I was available for them to pop in for extended visits, to call or text about random things, or to pressure me to participate in endeavors I had neither the time or inclination for. “Didn’t they know I needed to write?” I fought frustration until I remembered a rule I had incorporated years earlier as a business coach. I told family and friends that when I closed the door to my office or posted that I was cave-dwelling on social media, I needed them to consider it a Do Not Disturb symbol. I asked my peeps not to bother me, unless it was important enough that they would call me out of a meeting 500 miles away. The training took a little while, but now it works beautifully.
6. Protect your creative time fiercely. Beware of interruptions—especially from yourself. The quote above is tweaked from something J.K. Rowling said about writing. But I’ve learned the endless requests often come from an internal voice. Guard yourself against distraction. Just because the television, social media, or scrubbing the toilet call your name, doesn’t mean you have to answer.
7. Turn off the tube. This may sound silly and simple, but how many of us have lost volumes of time to mindless television shows? If your TV isn’t feeding your creative endeavors, flip the switch to off.
8. Get up and move on a regular basis. I do one-minute intervals at least hourly when working creatively. Running in place, jumping jacks, leg kicks, and air boxing all keep my blood pumping and my mind working.
9. Don’t fall prey to overwhelm. Break your work into chunk-sized fragments. Instead of focusing on the entire project, set a goal to prepare a segment. If a whole step still throws you into a tailspin, simply plan how you’ll take a singular action.
10. Enjoy the experience. Remind yourself of that younger version of you who dreamed of this opportunity. Most people never get to mark your creative pursuit off their bucket list. Relish these moments—they’re what you were made for.

Through experience, I’ve found the habits above propel me to much greater productivity. And there’s nothing like the rush of doing what you were made for and seeing it to completion.

How do you protect your creative productivity? 

by Anita Agers-Brooks