Six Tips to Manage Your Creative Works in Progress
You can do everything, but not all at once!
Are you the type of person who has a variety of creative interests? If your creativity branches off in many different directions, you might have several projects going at once. Your creative goals and dreams may be overwhelming. There may be a variety of art supplies cluttering up your spare room. Nothing is getting finished! How can we keep making progress in our creative work when our creative interests send us in many different directions?
1) Get all your ideas down in one place
The first step to organizing your creative impulses is to get all your ideas down in one place and out of your head. I have a notebook for ideas where I plot out any new projects I would like to try or write about any creative whims that come to my head. I have lists and pages for blog post ideas and paintings. I have ideas for about throwing a tea party on Zoom. Sometimes I plot out these ideas and then nothing else happens with them. Other times they move forward into a work in progress. The notebook I used is based on the Scanner’s Daybook in Barbara Sher’s Refuse to Choose. Here’s an example from my own notebook.
(Notebook disclaimer: This is my actual idea notebook. It’s not neat or beautiful with colorful pens and I couldn’t stand the idea of redoing this page to make it look like my first run ideas are pretty or artistic. This is what my real idea planning looks like. May it inspire you to plan messy ideas.)
Here’s another example from a different blogger.
You can also use a digital file to plot out your creative ideas. The important part is to capture them and start the initial idea development.
2) List action steps for each project
Once the ideas are out of your head, you need to focus on the next right step for each project. For each project you would like to take on, think of a clear next action step. Keep a list by project of these next action steps. I have a board on Trello for my creative pursuits. Each creative project has a list with the next action step underneath it. I also list other actions steps, but at least have the next right thing down for each project.
When you write an action step, make it clear and specific. Instead of “take a dance class,” you would write “Look in local community center class schedules for a ballet or modern dance class.” If your next step is large and vague, it can make it harder for you to get to work on it. If it’s discrete and specific, you’re more likely to get it done. Here’s a picture of my creative pursuits Trello board:
If you want to learn more about this system for project planning and designing action steps, the book Getting Things Done talks about this at length. That book was very helpful for me in creating this project management system.
3) Time Blocking
When I plan my weekly schedule, I put time blocks on my calendar for work and fitness. I also put time blocks for my creative projects. I have daily time blocks for my writing and then I try to have one fun “Artist Date” time block to work on a separate type of creative project. Daily habits or weekly scheduled work can give you space to do different types of creative work. For example, learning to play the piano might be something you do regularly whereas sewing a piece of clothing might flow better with a longer block of time. If you are working with daily habit time blocks, it helps to think actively about the supplies you need and how to have them easy to access for a quick daily work period.
4) Consider periods of focus
I have an active interest in many different types of creative work. I find focusing on a few different projects at once is manageable, but I can’t do everything at one time. Over the last few months, I have made a deep dive into my writing work. Last winter, I focused on sewing and made a strong push to finish a large quilt and created several dresses and skirts. Last summer, I was doing a lot of baking and painting with acrylics. I can work on a couple things at a time but more than 2 or 3 and everything gets so diluted I forget what I’m working on. You can rotate focuses in what every time blocks work for you. I find 1-3 month focus periods work for my normal flow. I often read books that go along with the focus topic as part of my learning process.
5) Monitor the ebb and flow of different projects
Over the long term, I track how my different projects are going with a tracking chart. It’s a way for me to monitor which areas are getting most of my energy and which areas are on hold or are being neglected. The goal is not to keep all the balls in the air at once but to see if the current balance matches your interests and reminds you of other pursuits that might go next on the list. Here’s a picture of my board based off the idea of the “Scanner Planner” by Barbara Sher.
I put each project on a post-it note and move them up and down based on how much work I have put into each project recently. It can help me see the big picture. It also helps me plan what I want to focus on next.
6) If you’re done, let it go
Part of balancing your creative energy is realizing when you are never going to finish a specific work in progress. Clean out your project and supply cabinet periodically and be honest with yourself about what you are never going to complete. If you aren’t going to be doing any more card making, let the embossing powder go. If there’s a quilt where the colors just don’t look right and there’s no way to fix it, you can let that go too. Part of keeping balance is decluttering the projects and supplies that aren’t ever going to happen. If you take the old projects out of the back of the cabinet, you allow yourself more room to organize what you do need for creative work. It’s a lot easier to juggle one less ball.
Creative balance is the spice of life
If you are the type of artist that has to move from one project to another to truly express yourself, you aren’t alone. It’s important to own that you will never be a one-project person and plan for that. When you work on multiple types of creative pursuits, you need to get everything captured on paper or a digital file and actively manage the threads as you weave them in and out of your life. It’s okay to need variety and a little project planning will help you manage what you’ve taken on.