I need a plan

[lasti]

Hello, my friends!

I need your help.

I’m going to explain my situation: I’m 19 and have left school a few weeks ago. I live on my own so I’m looking for a job right now in order to be able to pay my bills.

So:
At the moment every day is like this: I wake up at 12 o’clock – and then I waste the whole day. I walk around in town, I read, I call people, I surf the web. I go to bed at 3 or 4 o’clock. And then it starts all over again.

You maybe want to say now: You need a life purpose and goals in order to have something to live for and get motivated.

But I do have goals and dreams and a life purpose. I just don’t do anything for it because I don’t have a daily routine. It’s like I think: “You can do that later, anyway, let’s have some fun first so you get in a motivated mood.” It’s like normal procrastination.

But…
The problem with my goals is that almost everything I want to do requires high creativity. I want to write songs, I want to blog about my life, I want to write poems and storys, I want to create short music videos, I want to draw a cover for my first album and so on. But I can’t be highly creative for more than 1,5 – 2 hours in a row. I always then need a pause from my creative work.

But I can’t take pauses all the time (It’s not that all my creativity is back after 10 minutes). So I look for activities which require no or almost no creativity.

And then I end up with activities like that: “I walk around in town, I read, I call people, I surf the web.” And I’m again in the old pattern till the end of the day.

You see: I need a plan. A daily plan for what to do and when to do it. But it’s so very complicated because of this need for a pause or doing something less creative. I really don’t know how to set up a plan which allows me to work and to pause when I need to.

Maybe you have some general ideas for me? Maybe an abstract plan I can try to adapt to my life? Maybe you have totally different statements to my situation?

I’m really looking forward to every single reply!

Please help me, I’m feeling really bad about my situation right now.

[Lauxa]

Maybe when you need a pause from creativity you can direct your energy to manual tasks. How is your living environment? Is it neat, clean, and organized? Maintaining a beautiful space in which to create could help boost your creativity, and would be an outlet for the times you need to pause.

When I am doing something creative and I need a break, I go clean the kitchen, or go to the grocery store, or prepare dinner, or fold laundry. That is what I do if I am in a positive and motivated place. If I am in a negative place, I am much more likely to waste time to comfort myself.

[lasti]

Originally Posted by Lauxa

When I am doing something creative and I need a break, I go clean the kitchen, or go to the grocery store, or prepare dinner, or fold laundry. That is what I do if I am in a positive and motivated place. If I am in a negative place, I am much more likely to waste time to comfort myself.

Thank you for your idea, Lauxa!
I have already started to make my place more positive. I don't see a big effect until now but there's still a lot to do.

Any other ideas?

[Smarky]

Force yourself to work longer.

Creativity is not all a nice lovey dovey process. It's down and dirty. You gotta push past it. That's if you ever want to do all this stuff, cause you will never if you are not able to spend longer on it each day. A good book to read is the war of art by Steven pressfield. I think.

[lasti]

Thanks for your book recommendation, Smarky! I haven't heard about this book before. It sounds interesting! When I can be creative for a longer time my problem will, of course, minimize.

[kpugh]

I'd suggest you track your creativity for a while. Literally, just keep a list of your most creative times, what you were doing, and ALSO what you did in between "bursts". Don't approach it like some kind of formal journal, just jot down enough to remember what you were doing and how it affected your creativity and your energy. I'd be willing to bet that if you did this consistently for a few weeks, you'd start to identify a pattern pretty clearly. Then you can more purposefully CREATE your creative times and high-energy moments when you feel "stuck". Try it...I'd love to hear how it works for you.

[lasti]

Originally Posted by kpugh

I'd suggest you track your creativity for a while. Literally, just keep a list of your most creative times, what you were doing, and ALSO what you did in between "bursts". Don't approach it like some kind of formal journal, just jot down enough to remember what you were doing and how it affected your creativity and your energy. I'd be willing to bet that if you did this consistently for a few weeks, you'd start to identify a pattern pretty clearly. Then you can more purposefully CREATE your creative times and high-energy moments when you feel "stuck". Try it...I'd love to hear how it works for you.

Hey Kpugh, thanks for your answer!
Interesting idea! I might find out some new insights about my creativity. Of course I will share my results.

[stellabeam]

i suggest you forget about your creativity and get a solid income.

I used to use my creativity as an excuse for not taking care of myself financially. I was artistic. I wanted to make money through my art. This takes time and effort.
If you have bills to pay now, get a job. At least until you organise something else.

I am a song writer. I got a degree in an industry that would pay me good wages. i write songs going to work in the traffic jam. I write much more songs like this than i ever did when i was not working and trying to be an artist.

I can also afford to pay for song writing workshops which are so inspiring and fun. I meet wonderful people there who inspire me.

Take care of your basic needs first.

Stella

[lasti]

Originally Posted by stellabeam

i suggest you forget about your creativity and get a solid income.

I used to use my creativity as an excuse for not taking care of myself financially. I was artistic. I wanted to make money through my art. This takes time and effort.
If you have bills to pay now, get a job. At least until you organise something else.

I am a song writer. I got a degree in an industry that would pay me good wages. i write songs going to work in the traffic jam. I write much more songs like this than i ever did when i was not working and trying to be an artist.

I can also afford to pay for song writing workshops which are so inspiring and fun. I meet wonderful people there who inspire me.

Take care of your basic needs first.

Stella

Thanks, Stella. Didn't know you're a songwriter. That's cool. As I said I'm looking for a job right now (besides that I have a little only business but this can't pay my bills at the moment either). But I will try to waste as few hours as possible with doing something I don't want to do. So I will still have a lot of hours left for me, which I will have to organise somehow.

In the moment I already feel better. I got up at 6.30 this morning and have had some productive hours. And I used Lauxa's advise already. I'm gonna work a few hours for my business now and then I'm gonna clean my flat.

[uberinquisitive]

Originally Posted by lasti

I want to write songs, I want to blog about my life, I want to write poems and storys, I want to create short music videos, I want to draw a cover for my first album and so on.

Well, no wonder you procrastinate - you lack focus and projects.

FOCUS
Choose only one of these things. I suggest you choose the most "practical" of these artistic endeavors. Example: music video directors tend to in greater demand than a poet.



PROJECTS
In that one area, choose a project that can be completed in a month. Example: you create a 3-minute video to upload on YouTube. If you don't have the skills you'd like, spend this month learning a specific skill related to this area.

As you become more skilled in an area, you will find that one area inspires another. But take it one step at a time.

I am using this approach for my screenwriting. And - I have made more progress this past month than the past 5 months combined.

[lasti]

Originally Posted by uberinquisitive

FOCUS
Choose only one of these things. I suggest you choose the most "practical" of these artistic endeavors. Example: music video directors tend to in greater demand than a poet.

PROJECTS
In that one area, choose a project that can be completed in a month. Example: you create a 3-minute video to upload on YouTube. If you don't have the skills you'd like, spend this month learning a specific skill related to this area.

.

Hi uberinquisitive, thanks for your answer! I see what you mean.
But actually there are just two areas:

- my business (online marketing): My strategy is to make passive income in order to be independent from the need of getting a job and wasting time. Besides that it's a good way to get money because I like it and I can help other people (by writing valuable articles).

- arts: At the moment I'm creating an album (I have 80% of the songs finished). So I need to write songs and song texts. Of course I need a cover for the album, so I'm gonna draw one. And then I need marketing for the album so I'm gonna make some videos for some of the songs.

Besides that, writing songs all day is for me even more difficult than switching between writing songs and blogging for example. It means having even less recreation from the same creative work. And I really enjoy doing these different tasks.

When I log my creativity I will see whether it's easier for me to work when I'm focused on one task or when I do a lot. So I will definitely try this.

I'll let you know my results. Thanks again.

[Kaspian]

Lasti,

You might also find it useful to work through the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. It's designed as a course in creativity, and I found it to be very powerful for getting past creative blocks.

[lasti]

Originally Posted by Kaspian

Lasti,

You might also find it useful to work through the book The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. It's designed as a course in creativity, and I found it to be very powerful for getting past creative blocks.

Hi Kaspian!
Thanks for your book recommendation. It sounds interesting. Maybe this can help me.

[Brutha]

But I can’t take pauses all the time (It’s not that all my creativity is back after 10 minutes). So I look for activities which require no or almost no creativity.

Have you thought about having simply no activity in your pauses?
When they creativity leaves, sit down and meditate till it comes back.

There no need to constantly do things.
If you have nothing productive to do, it okay to just sit down and BE.

I think it is a flawed idea that you have to do something to relax.
Just sitting down in a comfortable position or standing still at one place is enough.

Maybe play your own music during the process, but in general you don't have to fill your time with activity.

That said, I should stop procrastinating by browsing this forum an get something done

[lasti]

Hi Brutha! Nice to hear from you again.

I may try that but I fear that my days won't be very productive then...
Being is great but there is no contradiction between being and doing so why not do both?
But I'll try it out, of course, and will let you know what happened.

[Brutha]

Being is great but there is no contradiction between being and doing so why not do both?

It better to do nothing than to do something which isn't productive but gives you the elusion that you are doing something.
That allows you to focus again on the productive work much sooner.

[lasti]

Originally Posted by Brutha

It better to do nothing than to do something which isn't productive but gives you the elusion that you are doing something.
That allows you to focus again on the productive work much sooner.

I agree with you there.

[daredevil83]

You can also try mind maps to improve your creativity, especially when you feel that you run out of it.

[lasti]

Thanks for your answer, daredevil83!
Yes, mind mapping is a good method to find ideas. I never really worked with it, though. Maybe this could help me to wirte song texts.

[GinaB]

Hi, just wanted to say you are a awesome person. I dont have to know you to say that, because so far you have made the first step by asking, but at this point you need to ask yourself the most important question and that is Why do you want to do the things you want. At first for me I couldn't answer that right away. We cant just say we want something, you have to know why you want it; think about something you really wanted. You knew the why answer right away. But when you have to sit and think about something you say you are wanting, means you haven't really really put it into creation. Just like when we were little kids we knew, without a doubt, what we wanted.We were little master minders. Hope this helps. Have an awesome day.