Productivity for Creatives (who suck at managing themselves)
I’m a creator and an artist and I freaking love what I do. If you’re a creative too, you know how it is—it’s like building your own world.
Plus, there’s nobody telling you what to do and what to do it. That was my goal.
But therein lies the problem.
I suck at organizing my life and being efficient with my time. I think this messy situation is pretty common for soloists.
So this is my take on productivity for creatives.
It’s not about doing more or even reaching some perfect efficiency ratio. That sounds terrible anyways…AI can have that.
This is about doing the stuff I actually want to do more consistently and without the burnout. This is about being human but still getting things done.
So if that sounds tight, keep reading.
Table of Contents
Productivity for Creatives Is Particularly Cumbersome
Creative work needs leisure. Breakthroughs need space. And artists do not do well in hustle culture.
There’s a dark side to over-optimizing yourself and toxic productivity is sneaky. It’s my whole reason for creating my own philosophy (what I call vibe productivity).
Creative work isn’t a rinse-and-repeat system or template. Productivity solutions don’t align with the whims of an artist. Often, my biggest breakthroughs happen while trying to sleep or taking a shower. Or while procrastinating on the things I “should be” doing.
Sometimes (often), my most productive creative work gets done while I’m technically being unproductive.
It’s a conundrum. A paradox. And makes productivity for creative work particularly nuanced.
But I’ve found a few solutions that help.
Productivity for Creatives (4 things I’m doing)
1. Always Have Your Creative Space Set Up
Nothing ruins a spontaneous spark of creativity like needing to set up your studio before getting to work.
The best solution? Keep your stuff set up and ready to go at a moment’s notice.
If you can, designate a space in your room or home exclusively for creative work. Or the very least, make set up as simple and quick as possible.
Capturing random creativity is the ultimate goal. Some of my best ideas come through in those moments.
2. Create Things, But Don’t Share Them (*yet)
One of my biggest issues with productivity is consistency.
Consistently posting, regularly releasing or creating work on some set schedule (which algorithms and fans apparently like…but I don’t actually if that’s true though).
It’s hard. And annoying.
But what if you first create a massive backlog of work and content (without ever sharing it)?
Imagine taking six month (or a year) to create tons of projects, content and work. But you don’t release any of it. Instead, you prepare and tweak and develop yourself behind the scenes, patiently, without the influence of likes, engagement and trend-addicted algorithms.
Then, you launch (yourself, your brand, your work).
But you don’t need to do the work of showing up everyday to create something new, which gets harder when it’s public for whatever reason.
Maybe it’s the trolls or the comparison culture or the lure of hopping on that trend.
What if all you needed to do was hit publish and then just keep up with the comments?
Both Lil Dicky and RUSS talk about this approach. And something about it feels good.
You’ll naturally continue working (on fresh material) while sharing your backlog, but it’s pressure-free work that you don’t need to share straight away (just for the sake of sharing).
3. Find What Works for You
There are tons of time management styles out there. For some people, the Eisenhower Matrix works perfect.
For others, it’s all about Peak Performance time.
Or the Pareto Principle.
Or time blocking.
The point is, the method doesn’t matter. It’s how well the method works for you that’s important.
Your solution might be a messy kitchen sink approach of different ideas pieced together. Or something completely new. Or something super boring, but effective.
So test out some ideas and pay attention to the things that work and feel good. Find your custom solution.
4. Stop Trying to Be Perfect
Part of my life philosophy (and a running theme for everything I do) is to be human.
Embrace unpolished, imperfect, messy stuff.
This takes away the pressure to perform or pretend. Ironically, this makes me more productive (a happy creative makes for a productive one).
So this might be the most urgent advice: embrace the ugly, imperfect, chaotic situation.
Try to improve things, for sure. But yourself some slack too. Perfect isn’t real. Enjoy the process above all else.
That’s all I’ve got here. Thanks for reading.
Later ✌️
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