Five Ways to Click into a Creative Headspace
Get started faster!
Circling the Runway
When I sit down to work on my novel, I turn on my computer and instead of jumping right into the next scene, I often check my Facebook notifications or my Medium stats for the day. I might check my work email and then my personal email. Maybe I will write back to my friends on Messenger.
I don’t mean to waste time, but my resistance often manifests in needing to circle the runway a bit before I dive in.
Eric Maisel, in Secrets of a Creativity Coach, talks about reducing what it takes to click into the creative mindset. He defines the problem this way:
Many creative people have the following experience – they find it harder to get into the mind space to create than to do their creative work. As soon as they are in that creative mind space the work flows readily, ah, but how grotesquely hard it is to get there – doubt, worry, noisy mind, resistance, existential despair, and much more conspire to make it feel as if this couldn’t possibly be the right time to create.
Eric Maisel in The Secrets of a Creativity Coach – Chapter 18 Flipping the Switch
If we can get to work faster, our productivity skyrockets. In the book, one of Dr. Maisel’s coaching clients struggles to get started if conditions aren’t perfect. Here’s the advice he gives:
I would love you to start to say and believe ‘I can flip the switch right now and get to the art making.’ and to really practice moving fluidly and effortlessly from some task or other to studio work. Picture it and practice flipping that switch.
Eric Maisel in Secrets of a Creativity Coach – Chapter 18 Flipping the Switch
I want to be able to flip the switch to dive into my creative work!
I started to experiment with ways to click into the creative headspace faster. Here are five things you can try to get into the zone faster and get more creative work accomplished.
1) Set a timer
For me, the number one thing that helps me dive in quickly is to tell myself I only need to work on whatever it is for ten minutes. It’s stupid simple, but it always works.
I set a timer, either on my computer or on my phone and then I force myself to do a focused work session during that 10 minute block with no interruptions.
Usually, I continue working much longer when the 10 minutes is up, but the urgency and focus of the timed session gets me over the hump and into the creative headspace.
2) Shut out the world
When it’s time to get started with your creative work, do everything you can to shut out the distractions from the world.
Put your cell phone in a drawer or put it in airplane mode.
If your creative work happens on a computer, you can shut down all tabs but the one thing you are really working on so you can focus. There are apps you can use to make sure you don’t access social media or other things during your focused working block. You can learn more about various apps here.
Another option is to put your laptop in airplane mode or turn off the Wifi, so you can’t access the internet. I work on Google Docs or my blog website usually, so that’s not my favorite method but it’s always an option.
3) Prep today for tomorrow
One way to make creative work easier is to lower the barrier to starting. End today’s session with a clear plan for the next steps tomorrow.
For writing, you can put next steps right below the end of what you have written today. If you are painting, you can put a post-it in your workspace with a note about what to do next. If you are quilting, you can stack up all the blocks to stitch tomorrow on the sewing machine.
If you think actively about where you will start tomorrow, you can store up some of the positive momentum from today and pay it forward for tomorrow.
4) Set the scene
Another way to lower the energy needed to start is to think proactively about your work environment. When you establish a regular pattern for your working space, it can help you automatically click into that creative headspace. For example, when I go to a café to write, I have my coffee and my laptop and it’s very easy for me to get started. My body knows what I need to do. To tap into the environmental cues around cafes, I can try to establish a similar environment at home. This summer, I write my novel on my back porch table. I have my coffee or tea. Sometimes I even use coffee shop music and environmental noises from YouTube to make the scene more café like.
In an artistic environment, sometimes how you layout your supplies can help you dive in more quickly. It might be that you reset your work space each day after you complete your work. It could be the opposite. Maybe you don’t clean up and leave everything laid out right where it was to continue first thing tomorrow.
Another way to set the scene is to make things portable so you always have your art supplies with you and ready to go when you are away from home. If you want to learn more about that, check out this article.
You may want to have a certain playlist that you always use while painting to set the scene. You might want to hang inspirational art or quotes on the wall of your workspace.
Steven Pressfield, in his book The War of Art, says that he starts his writing session by reading a prayer to the Muse. Establishing a ritual can help you get your head in the game.
5) Chain together habits
Another way to slide right into your creative work time is to attach your work period to another regular habit. For me, the easiest place to establish a chain of habits is always in my morning routine. Maybe your morning habit chain might be to wake up, make a pot of tea and then start your drawing practice. Pair the creative work to something you do automatically anyway and your brain will get you into your creative headspace automatically too.
If you aren’t a morning person, you can tie your creative work period to your evening routine. You might shower, brush your teeth and then sit down at your workspace to write before bedtime. If you pick a good trigger for your chain of habits, your daily patterns will pull you along without having to make a conscious decision.
Atomic Habits author James Clear calls a building a chain of habits “Habit Stacking and you can learn more about it in this article.
Whatever you need to do to get into the creative headspace and stay there, get it done!
The faster you click in to your creative headspace, the more productive you’ll be. It’s worth the effort to minimize the work it takes you to get there.
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