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Dumping Mr. Perfect

He’s busy inside your mind, squirreling away on a treadmill that never ceases. “Again!” he cries, never satisfied. “Better!” he urges, and you comply, re-working that sentence, re-painting that corner.

He is Mr. Perfect, and if he rules you, your creativity is at high risk. Your perfectionism gremlin is actually not helping you – he’s draining your creative vitality.

Mr. Perfect is a sneaky gremlin. He has you convinced that perfectionism is a good thing, that re-working something endlessly means you have integrity and high artistic standards.

The problem is, more often than not, Mr. Perfect grinds away at you for so long that you end up never completing that draft or that sculpture. Because it’s never perfect, you never feel satisfied and you don’t advance your creative career.

Mr. Perfect tries to dominate my clients’ creative process. They proudly and sheepishly proclaim that they are perfectionists, sensing Mr. Perfect isn’t good for them, but feeling unable to escape his grip.
Why do we labor under this illusion of an attainable perfection? [Read more…] about Dumping Mr. Perfect

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Got the Creative Blues? Write Your Acknowledgement Page

There comes a point in the writing of your novel when it’s just a slog. You’re close to the end but you don’t feel like you’ll ever see that finish line or hold your book in your hands.

This creative despair can be crippling. Time to lighten things up with gratitude.

The quickest way to gratitude is to write your acknowledgement page. If you’ve written a book, you know that this page isn’t just a nicety. Finishing a book really does require all those people, and even though it’s your name on the cover, the names on the acknowledgement page are equally important.
They’re especially valuable when you need to gather encouragement. You may not be able to invite them over to soothe your writer’s soul, but you can bring them together by drafting your acknowledgment page. [Read more…] about Got the Creative Blues? Write Your Acknowledgement Page

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Don't Let the Deadline Zone Kill You

Among the many strategies to help get creative projects done, deadlines rule. I love setting deadlines to complete my books and projects.
And, I nearly always miss my deadlines. But that doesn’t mean they’re not working – I’m just using them differently.
Deadlines aren’t just about meeting a goal by a certain date. Deadlines are a chastity belt for your wandering creative lust – keeping you focused.



Nowhere else to go!


But sometimes our deadlines can turn against us, applying too much pressure and choking our creativity instead of serving it. If you find yourself feeling too much pressure or avoiding the work, your deadline may be killing you.
Use your deadline as a way to focus rather than a whipping stick. Let your due date help you make choices that guide you toward completion. If the deadline’s choking you, back off on the pressure. Don’t decrease your workload or focus and don’t extend the date. Just keep going.
When you miss the deadline, just set another. Don’t make up stories about your integrity or your ability to write. Learn from it, and keep going.
How about you? How do you use deadlines? Do you always meet them and if not, what do you do when you don’t?
You know missing a deadline doesn’t mean you’re a dullard. Just another atom in the creative ignorosphere. This is part of my Creative Ignorosphere series, published here on the Original Impulse blog. Spread the word and help your friends out of the ignorosphere! #creativeignorosphere

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Not Getting Things Done? Enter the Deadline Zone

Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a focused space in which to write your book or finish your project? You often yearn for that far-off creative zone, an idyllic escape where you can focus on your work without daily distractions, tempting dates with friends and other seductive projects.

A mountain getaway would surely help you stay focused on one project. You may even replace Julie Andrews with an image of yourself, singing blissfully to the sky because you’re so tuned into the creative flow!
Sigh. Maybe you can’t escape your daily grind, but you can create what I call The Deadline Zone. This is less a place than a practice – and your ability to shut off distractions to complete projects is a key factor in your success.

Something about the word ‘deadline’ strikes fear in the hearts of many. Most people understand the urgency and focus of a deadline. [Read more…] about Not Getting Things Done? Enter the Deadline Zone

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Too Much On Your ‘Plate’? MindMap Your Way to Sanity

As usual, you’re juggling a lot of things at once. You’re managing creative projects, work projects, family projects. You have a lot on your plate but you get lost in the daily details. You keep adding more and because you don’t have a sense of the whole, you live in a state of overwhelm and stress.

The problem? You don’t have a solid sense of everything that you’ve committed to, so you keep saying yes.
The solution is simple. Draw a visual of your ‘plate.’ I use a mindmap for each month so I can see at a glance what I’ve committed to.

Mindmap your plate

At the end of the month, do a plate map for the following month. In a page in your work journal, put the name of the month in the middle. In circles or boxes around it, name your projects. From each of those projects you can list out tasks to complete each project.

I don’t list ongoing things like client work, administrative work, or miscellaneous things like commenting on blogs and in forums. The map tracks major projects that require immediate attention and focus to complete them.

There are at least three ways this helps you be sane with your commitments:

Reality check. Seeing my big projects on the page helps me know when I’ve taken on too much. Throughout the month I can flip back to the plate map and get a quick reminder of my focus when days threaten to dissolve in minituae.

Just say no to shiny new things. When new opportunities arise, I can check my plate map to see if I can truly add anything more.

How did it go? At the end of the month, I go back to the page and check in to see if I completed my projects. If not, they go onto the next month. Like this, month by month, I am able to manage multiple projects and complete things without feeling overwhelmed.

The numbers. Here’s a bonus. Last month I added a list on the plate map of my estimated expenses for the month. At first I thought this kind of thing didn’t belong on the plate map. Then I realized it was a simple way to see that month’s expenses at a glance, and also to see how what I was working on related to my finances. (If I were really doing that thoroughly, I’d add income as well.)

Try it – place everything you’re trying to consume on one page in a notebook or online document. What do you see? How do you use visual planning techniques to get things done?