If you’re a creative person, you know that it’s not always easy to accomplish creative work.
You can’t just force yourself to do it, no matter what. Unlike chores, a report or answering emails, creative work requires inspiration. And that’s not always present when you need it.
But don’t worry: there are ways to get inspired. Or to use inspiration to the fullest once it hits.
Depending on the way you like to work, I identified 3 different ways to accomplish creative work. If you’re interested, just keep on reading!
Wait for creativity to hit and get a head start on all of your tasks
The first and probably most straight-forward way to accomplish creative work is to just wait for inspiration. Of course, it doesn’t mean that you just sit and wait.
There are ways to seek said inspiration. By turning off your phone, for example. You’d be surprised at how much that helps!
Creativity tends to come in waves, so it can be easiest to just go with the flow. You don’t have to force anything. Or beat yourself up about being uncreative. One day, you’ll wake up feeling super inspired and that’s when you’ll make the most of it.
And if you feel like you’re stuck in a rut, this post might help!
If you want to use every burst of creativity to its fullest, you need to plan ahead. Create a list of all the creative tasks you want to accomplish well in advance. This way, you can get to them as soon as you feel like it. You don’t want to waste your creative energy on preparation. 😉
By planning far in advance, you won’t get stressed by any deadlines, and you’ll usually finish big chunks of work all at once. After that, you’ll be free for a couple of weeks.
This technique works great if only one part of your work is creative. For example, if you have a more technical day job but write blog posts on the side. You don’t need to be creative all day, every day. And thus, you can simply wait until you’re truly feeling inspired.
Actively look for inspiration for that specific task
While it’s great to simply wait for inspiration, this can become complicated when you’re on a tight schedule. Or when most of your tasks are of creative nature.
To accomplish creative work while sticking to a schedule, you’ll have to actively seek inspiration for each specific task.
If you need to create a graphic design, it can help to look at other people’s work. This way, you gather ideas and can combine them into something of your own.
Say you plan on writing an article about a specific topic. For this, you might want to do some extensive research on said topic. Find media that speak to you the most: books, TED talks, YouTube videos, other articles…
Whenever I’m doing research for my posts, I like to go on YouTube and other blogs (including the comment section!) and also scroll through forums to see what people are actually interested in. I also love to get inspiration from scientific research if it fits my topic.
Sometimes, a simple conversation can give rise to so many new ideas!
Inspiration is literally everywhere. And if you prefer to accomplish creative work on a schedule, you need to find ways to seek it at a given time.
Adapt your work to your mood
This third way to accomplish creative work is my personal favourite. Especially when I use it for blog posts. In my experience, it produces the most honest, genuine content. But I’m getting ahead of myself:
Instead of waiting for a burst of creativity or actively seeking inspiration, you can simply adapt your work to your mood.
Feeling down and uninspired today? Write about it. Paint something that reflects that mood. Or go out and take gloomy pictures.
See your creative outlet as a therapy for your mood. Instead of pushing it down, channel it into something that will inspire others who might be going through the same thing.
On the contrary, happy, energetic days are best for colourful, quirky work. Or those tasks you just couldn’t motivate yourself to do before.
Instead of following a set schedule, you simply let your current mood inspire your creativity.
Of course, this makes planning a lot harder. But at least your work will be genuine!
Combining all three ways to accomplish creative work
Now, since none of us live in a perfect world, you might need to find a mixture of all three ways to accomplish creative work. But knowing about them can truly help.
In my case, I mostly let myself get inspired by my mood. Whenever I’m having a bad day, I just start writing. Sure, it doesn’t always make it into a blog post. But sometimes it does. And thus, I suddenly created something on a completely uncreative day!
Other posts are based on a lot of research. But research doesn’t mean that you just copy and paste other people’s opinions. Instead, it’s fuel for thought to come up with your own ideas.
I usually plan a day for the research and write down all of my ideas. Then, I come back to them at a later time and pick out the things that ring true to me, and that I want to use in my post.
And lastly, I still complete big chunks of creative work whenever I just wake up feeling inspired. It’s incredible how easy it is to write on those days! Instead of spending 5 hours on the same post, I suddenly come up with 3 or 4. But I prefer not to rely on these bursts of creativity only.
Now tell me: how do you accomplish creative work? I’d love if you could leave a comment!
And please share this post on social media if you found it helpful. 🙂