Setting goals is important, especially as a creative when many interests and potential project ideas can distract us from accomplishing things that are already in progress.

But, achieving goals can be a bit more complicated than just setting goals.

Things to keep in mind:

How do I process that?

Understanding our personal processes is important for our own sanity, but also key to completing our work.

I believe there are 3 main types process:

There are positives to planning and procrastinating, but being frantic doesn't appear to have any upside. By planning we can schedule things out and have an understanding of what is coming and what needs our attention. However, procrastinators may put off work not because they are lazy but because they do their best work when the pressure is on, but it can be a slippery slope. Finding the balance for your personal approach is what really matters.

I could tell you my exact approach for the different types of work I do, but it may be a waste. My work style and process could stress you out. I'm not saying my process is perfect without room for improvement, but it works for me. When am I working on this? Currently it is slightly after 2:30 AM. Some of my process is cranking on ideas late at night (or early depending on your perspective). That is just how my mind works, so I work with it and have made it part of my process to do things late at night.

Set yourself up with a helpful checklist or reminders. The reminders can be written on paper or setup in an app. The main thing is finding ways to keep yourself focused and on task. Determine what tasks are repeatable or frequent and others that are one off specific to a project or work type. When you create your process leave some room for flexibility especially if the work you are doing is new or different from previous work. Give yourself room to breathe and adapt as you learn. The only time a rigid process will work without making you crazy is if you only take one type of work and it is very specific. 

Remember that understanding your process and work style is just to help you become more efficient at what you are already doing. Your process doesn't have to impress anyone, it just has to work for you. After completing a project, take a few minutes to reflect on what went well and what could be improved. Use those ideas for improvement as a tool to enhance and refine your process. Your future self will hopefully thank you for that.

Imposter Syndrome is something we all have experienced at one point or another. But what is imposter syndrome? It is a general feeling that we are going to be found out to be a fraud, inexperienced, or just misinformed about something we thought we knew. Imposter Syndrome can lead to feelings of hopelessness, depression and dread. 

However, we can overcome imposter syndrome once we know how it sneaks up on us.

What causes Imposter Syndrome?

How are you currently handling haters?

At some point we are all likely to have some haters. Having haters is unpleasant, but if no one is being salty or argumentative with us about our creative work, perhaps it isn't our best work. It is nearly impossible to create something that everyone likes and that is okay. However, having individuals share a different perspective with us, even if it isn't one we appreciate can be beneficial.

Different types of haters require different strategies.

Most importantly, be proactive about asking for feedback and remain open-minded. Ask for honest feedback and be willing to follow up for more context if the feedback received feeling like a personal attack. Some people don't have a lot of practice giving feedback in a way that feels positive.

This episode goes beyond the labels of artist and designer. I dive into why this labels can be misleading for the creator to properly understand the context of their work. Additionally, I cover several of the reasons that cause artists to lose their focus and passion for their true art. I also talk about the dangers of designers assuming the role of an artist by truly ignoring context and the intended audience for their work.

The line between art and design isn't alway clearly definable. The terms "artist" and "designer" also carry specific meaning. But it is important to understand the context of what you are creating and the intended audience. 

So, how are we defining Artist and Designer?

Episode Sponsor:

We all have an inner creative compass. If you know where you are going the compass can help keep you on track, but if you aren't sure where you are going hoping the compass will determine the destination is risky.

There are four main categories of creative work that impact our creative journey and goals:

We need to protect our journey by ensuring the work that we do is not moving us further away from our goals. This may mean our work temporarily isn't as engaging to other people while we focus on making things that excite us and reignite our passion for our own work.

Additionally, we can't allow laziness or entitlement cloud out our goals. I highly encourage reading through Talent is Never Enough by John C. Maxwell when you have a chance. One of the main takeaways for me is, someone that is willing to work hard can surpass a talented person that is lazy. Ouch. I think deep down we all know this, but it isn't easy to hear. I'm not suggesting that we hustle and grind until we burnout, but we need to be intentional and reevaluate often to keep ourselves on track for achieving long term goals.

Big shoutout to Diego Vilela for creating our new podcast art. I had a blast collaborating with Diego. Definitely check out his work on Instagram @superday_brand. I'm hoping to collaborate with him again in the future.

Divergent Lenses

Have we lost our sense of imagination or just how to properly use it? I propose that we collectively need to fall down the rabbit hole with purpose on a recurring basis.

Approaching a problem through your own context creates a narrow solution funnel. You must be willing to get out of your own head for a bit and think about a problem from other vantage points.

"If I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions"

Jumping straight into solution generation can lead to only making modest steps forward. If you are only focused on solutions, you are actively cheating yourself out of unique discoveries and novel combinations that only come through deep thought.

Focused thought will uncover numerous potential solutions by evaluating the underlying issues thoroughly. The biggest problems aren't always the most obvious. You must be willing to review your thoughts several times to see the small gaps.

We all have our own unique areas of expertise, but the insight granted through expertise always comes with blinders. This produces unintentional information unawareness. Refusing to acknowledge your blind spot will likely cause you to not consider what is beyond it.

"A specialist is a man who knows more and more about less and less"

The best way to mitigate an information bias is by constantly changing your routine.

Using Divergent Lenses as a metaphor, let us consider several ocular devices and how they impact our understanding.

Using some or all of the devices mentioned would produce a more reliable, detailed and interesting result. This is also the benefit of using divergent lenses. Using multiple vantage points and perspectives will produce more compelling and robust solutions.

The focus of this episode is Creative Productivity.

Three Plus One Equals Improvement

Improvement really is this simple. But that doesn't mean it is easy. Why does it seem so easy to get distracted? I'm not even going to try to answer that question today. But we all get distracted from time to time.

How can you limit distraction? You need to have a plan. I'm going to give you a plan that has been working for me.

3 + 1 is my plan. Its simplicity is key.

First, the 3 stands for 3 things you are planning to focus on tomorrow. Yep, it is pretty basic. The only added complexity is ranking those 3 items by importance. When you write them down, write them in order of priority.

By ranking your 3 items, you are mentally preparing yourself for tomorrow and how you will spend your time. When tomorrow comes, keep your list nearby (try sticky notes or a smartphone app). Revisit your list throughout the day. Has your attention been diverted from your most important task? Refocus your energy back on the task with the highest priority. Give completed tasks a strikethrough to reinforce to yourself that you can move on to the next item.

At the end of the day look at you list one last time. Did you accomplish all 3 items on your list? If you weren't able to complete all items, carry them forward to tomorrow, but take time to prioritize any new tasks against your carryover. Just because something was on your list of priorities today, doesn't mean it has the same priority tomorrow (it may not even make the next day's list).

The "+ 1" carries a different meaning than your list of 3. Its purpose is to harness your personal goals. The "+ 1" is about capturing 1 thing that you want to improve on the next day personally. Focus on the word "improve". Perhaps you want to improve your knowledge on a specific topic or improve your presentation skills. Whatever your 1 thing is, add it to your list but keep it separate from your prioritized tasks. Over time you'll swap this focus out for something new you want to improve in the future.

Are you willing to give this a try? If so, I'd appreciate hearing how this approach works for you.

We are in the final stages of preparing to really kick off Creative Itch. The destination for authentic discussions on all things creative. You're invited to join us as we cover creative culture, hot takes, lessons learned, resources, tools, and more.