8 WAYS TO BE MORE CREATIVE DAILY
As someone working in a creative field, it can be hard to incorporate creating just to create into my routine. Spending most of my day creating for others doesn't leave a lot of room for my own creativity. (How many times will I say creativity in this blog post… who knows.)
Here are eight of my top tips to add some creativity to your day:
1// Make creating part of your daily routine
Perfectionism was a really difficult part of adding creativity to my daily routine, it wasn't until I let go of expectations that I was able to start creating just to create.
“If I waited for perfection... I would never write a word.” - Margaret Atwood
Some Helpful Tips for adding creativity to your routine:
Daily Design Practice -- I started doing this after taking a webinar from Olivia Herrick. Before I do anything on my to-do list for the day, I take 10 minutes to create. I usually stick with digital but have been attempting to add other mediums to my practice.
Design Challenges -- Many designers host design challenges for a week or month at a time. Some of my favs are Mélanie Johnsson’s pattern challenge, Sha'an d'Anthes’s #peachtober (she hosts it every year) + Adobe’s Challenges. Having these prompts takes the thinking out of it and leads straight to the creating.
2// Try new mediums
As a digital artist, I try to draw, paint, doodle, watercolor, write, etc at least once a week. Writing blog posts has been part of my creative exercise. I have always hated writing and, as you can probably tell, I am a mediocre writer, but because it is hard for me, it flexes my creative muscle. Some things the hard things are the best things.
3//Embrace the white space on your calendar
I host a quarterly book club, and last month we read Atomic Habits by James Clear. While discussing the book, one of the attendees said “embrace the white space” and I fell in love with this idea. As a society we are obsessed with being busy and it is in the white space that we find the most creativity.
4// Learn something new every day
Learning something new doesn't have to be this arbitrary idea, for me I watch MasterClass, a TED talk or listen to a podcast everyday. These things are easy to fit into my schedule while I am doing other things like working out, cooking, illustrating, etc. I have found that this simple routine really brings me joy daily.
5// Run towards fear
As I mentioned above, I hate writing but here I am. I think that doing the things we fear or don’t enjoy makes us work harder to be creative. These are the things that make stronger artists, writers, or designers.
6// Optimize your workflow
I recently watched a MasterClass about sleep and it made me realize how important it is to figure out what time of day you're at your best. You can take a test to figure out your chronotype, which tells you your optimal time to rise + deep work.
I also find music to be really helpful when doing deep work. Check out my playlists here.
7// Offline Time
You can’t always be creative… Sometimes the best thing to do when in a rut is nothing. I try to take two nights a week off social media + a week every so often. Online can be really inspirational but so can the environment around you, reading, and just your good ol thoughts.
8// Don’t Quit the daydream
Keep a dream board, set goals that make you, keep an ideas list… never let the ideas stop flowing. I have recently started using notion to keep this organized. It also keeps these items actionable and not just on a list.
