7 Uncommon Tips to Keep a Creative Habit
I am the Queen of Procrastination, I have the largest collection of UFOs (UnFinished Objects), and I hold all the world records for "Fastest Time to Quit a Project". In my work life and community commitments, I'm extremely reliable and consistent. But when it comes to my personal goals and projects, I'm a perfectionist and I'm lazy which is the WORST combination. Funnily enough, I’m excellent at starting habits. Where I stumble is in keeping a new habit and I've tried all the usual tips that are recommended: “Join a like-minded community!" “Do a monthly challenge!” “Lay out your items the night before!” (also a common fitness habit tip). “Be accountable! Tell someone about your goal!" "Use money as a reward/penalty!" “Follow the hashtag on Instagram for inspiration!” These often did help me, but not for longer than a week.
You may know by now that my biggest priority is to make creativity a daily habit. I've spent the last 4 years studying goal-setting videos, watching hours of painting time-lapses, scrolling through artists' Instagram feeds and bingeing on motivational podcasts and audiobooks, but now I think I'm finally onto something. On this day in particular, I can nearly say that I've completed The 100 Day Project , which means 100 consecutive days of doing something creative. 100 days! This has never happened to me before!
So what's helped me finally keep this habit, and not just start it?
After years of trial and error, it’s the following 7 uncommon tips have helped me stick with it while navigating my perfectionism in the midst of it all. It is important to note that these tips are useful for any habit, not just creative ones.
1. Set a time limit so low that it feels silly
What wasn't working: I thought scheduling 3-hour blocks of time into my calendar would help me. Instead, I would procrastinate, get distracted or make excuses about not being able to find my black 0.1 Staedtler fineliner which apparently was the only thing stopping me from making a drawing (despite my absurd stash of 0.3 pens).
What worked instead: I kept shaving off time from my dedicated block until I found something that fit. I experimented with so many different time limits until I had cut 3 hours all the way down to 3 minutes. 3 minutes! I felt silly setting the timer every day, but shame on me if I couldn't commit to that. For the first time, I kept up this habit for a whole month. The beauty of having such a small time limit is that when you get to the end of the time, whether it be 3 or 5 or 10 minutes, you are likely to say to yourself, "Well, I may as well keep going now!" If not, you still accomplished your goal. 21 minutes per week is better than zero.
2. Start with materials that you love
What wasn't working: I thought having the most expensive materials and the complete sets of paints and pencils would motivate me. Nope. Expensive items made me too nervous to use them and having everything available to me left me with decision-fatigue or paralysis. (#creativityvsanxiety)
What worked instead: I have two favourite pens. They are black, waterproof, nice to use, and I can easily buy them for $4 from any Officeworks. I like 2B graphite pencils. I also really love my old red sketchbook where I would draw and brainstorm anything I wanted. And so this is how I started - I had removed the barrier of anxiety by using non-threatening, inexpensive, familiar items. Then, as my confidence built up, I was able to branch out to other materials.
3. Aim for a tally, not a calendar schedule
What wasn't working: The perfectionist in me likes things done cleanly and neatly, so being able to cross off every day in a row is deeply satisfying. If I miss a day, (usually Day Three) the chain is broken and I immediately give up. This is why monthly challenges have not usually worked for me.
What worked instead: I used to keep a calendar, but now I keep a tally. Making a tally of creative sessions rather than marking off days in a row is much less psychologically demanding for me. It means if something genuinely interrupts me one day, I don't have to feel like a failure. Having chronic and mental illnesses also means that these types of interrupted days occur frequently and unexpectedly. There’s less pressure for me in saying "15 times this month I will..." than "On Monday, Thursday and Friday I will...".
4. Don't reward yourself at the end - do it along the way
What wasn't working: I used to try and bribe myself with a big reward at the end but I should have remembered that even in my childhood, that didn't work for me. I was probably the only kid in the world that didn't care when my parents said, "You won't get dessert if you don't finish your dinner...". Nope. Never worked. In the same way, I couldn’t reward myself for keeping a habit because I never kept the habit.
What worked instead: As a creative, you need to enjoy the process as much as the outcome. This is unnatural for perfectionists like me so it took some training. Giving myself rewards combined with the above Tip #3 helped me a lot. When I sat down 5 times to create, I would reward myself. When I sat down 10 times, another reward. Then again for 20 and 40 times. The rewards got increasingly better and harder to reach as I developed more “muscle”.
5. Don't go on a creative bender
What wasn't working: Sometimes I would so inspired at the start of a new creative habit attempt that I would spend 6 hours drawing and painting and making until I ran out of ideas or materials. It felt good! But then the next day would come and I would do nothing and tell myself, "Well, I had a big day yesterday, I've earned a break." Then the next day would arrive, that all-important third day, and the flame of inspiration had burnt down to its final embers and the habit yet again was broken.
What worked instead: Please don't misunderstand me - you can't run out of creativity, but you can run out of energy. It's akin to a marathon - we know that the ones who run fast at the start aren't going to make it to the end because that's not how you run this kind of race. Consider your creativity in the same way. After you've had some fun today, it's important to leave yourself with something to look forward to tomorrow. Put a time boundary on yourself on when to STOP, and let yourself feel excited about returning to it tomorrow. By doing this, you can prolong your enjoyment over a greater number of days, weeks and even months.
6. Keep track of what you've done so you can remind yourself that you did
What wasn't working: As an under-confident artist, I'm often disappointed by the works that I've done. This meant that I would keep my works hidden away, never again to see the light of day. But every now and then I will see a new colour that I loved using, or a shape that I would want to use again later.
What worked instead: This time around I had to tell myself that my reason for making art was to form a habit, not a portfolio. So I blu-tacked my artworks up on the wall and took photos of my sketchbook pages and made them my wallpaper each week. Posting on Instagram meant that the likes, comments and reactions became further motivation. Eventually I want to create things that I love so much that I would hang them on my own walls - not because the art would represent skill and talent, but because they would bring me joy and memories.
7. Motivation is unreliable
What wasn't working: Motivation has a funny habit of showing up at 11pm or when you've been asked to do something else. But whenever it’s showtime, it’s nowhere to be seen. Like emotions, motivation comes and goes. And like emotions, motivation is useful, but you can't rely on it.
What worked instead: Unfortunately, the answer is simply discipline. There is no point in waiting for motivation. You have to be the initiator. You might even have to "fake it till you make it" for a while, forcing yourself to do the activity until the routine is more established. However, don’t try doing this tip on its own. I couldn't do this tip without the previously-mentioned tips, and neither would the previous tips work without the implementation of this one.
BONUS TIP: Start with a question, not a goal
So why would you want to interrupt your day with a ritual that involves discipline, materials, time and frustration? Why would I subject myself to something that causes me anxiety?
Something happened in me when I took a different approach to reflecting on my life. I started asking new kinds of questions as I considered my future. Who do I want to be surrounded by in 10 years? What kind of person do I want to be known as? What do I want people to turning to me for? What kind of household do I want to nourish? Which of my possessions do I want my family to keep when I've died? What kind of legacy do I want to leave behind?
As I started thinking about these questions, I realised that my perfectionism was delaying me from becoming the person I truly want to be. For every day or week or month that I don't create, I'm missing out on another chance to improve my practice. I began this journey of fighting my anxiety with my creativity 4 years ago, but it's only this year that I've truly picked it up. That's more than 3 years totally wasted when I could have been practising! I’m no longer aiming for perfection, but am aiming for “pencil miles”.
When reflecting on your life and planning your future, instead of making a checklist of what you want to do, make a list of who you want to be. For me, I want to be someone whose hands are stained from inks and paints. I want to be a mother or aunty or grandma who paints with her little ones and helps them not be afraid to be artists. I love the fact that I have been given my Great-Grandma's oil paints, her paint tins and a beautiful watercolour painting she made when she was in her thirties like me, framed by my Great-Grandad as a gift to her. I want to use my creativity to help people see beauty in their everyday lives, to help people heal from their pains and traumas, and to help people feel empowered to use their voice. I want to be able to say, "I love creating every day because I can't hold it back."
What about you? Who do you want to be? What’s your legacy? What habits are going to get you there?
Image credit: Amauri Meija