You have four hundred and eight nine projects on the go and another fifty sitting in your mind waiting to see the lift of day. If that is the case, you are a creative procrastinator my friend. You WANT to create things everything single day but the idea of picking up the brush, crochet hook, mixing paints or opening a document is like wading through honey, uphill, your pants are at your ankles and random people from your past are pointing and laughing. What a visual.
But difficult and painful nonetheless. How do you break get off of procrastination station?
Procrastination is the act of avoiding, delaying or not doing something even though you know you need to get it done by certain date. There is no avoiding it forever no matter how much your brain is trying to get you to do so.
13 Habits to Try if You Tend to Procrastinate Your Creative Projects:
- No Phone Days
- 30 Minute Scrolling Max
- Creative Flow Sessions
- Breath Work
- Dancing
- Kick Boxing
- Decluttering
- Outside Walks
- Try a New Medium
- Reading
- Community
- Visualization
- Somatic Yoga
No Phone Days
You phone is a distraction at best. And a rage inducing doom scroll device at worst. Schedule in one ore two no phone days per month. This means you need to be bored. Yikes. While you give your mind the space away from tiny little videos fill with something silly or horrific you can fill it with something else. Ideally creative or at least something peaceful.
30 Minute Scrolling Max
For the rest of the time you can allocate a timeline on your social media use. It is a crazy world out there and if you want to make art you need to make the time to make the art.
Creative Flow Sessions
When it comes to creating we can be our own worst critic. If you are stuck on something from a different project you can schedule in daily sessions to just flow. Let yourself create something new, different, and fun. This will take the pressure off, distract you from your current project but open yourself up to possibilities.
Breath Work
When life gets overwhelming, breathe. Take a deep breathe. Follow a ten minute session to connect with your breathe, centre yourself and focus your energy. We spend out lives collecting hundreds of thousands of stimuli, processing, thinking and reacting at all times. Taking a few moments throughout the day to calm your nervous system with a breath work exercise and watch the difference in your focus.
Dancing
Moving your body to music is a great way to release emotions, change your current state and have fun. You might not even realize how tense you are at times until you start shaking out your arms, swaying your hips, jumping to the beat. You do not have to be a good dancer. Simple move to the music and let your body exist in this space with out trying to overthinking the activity.
Kick Boxing
Similar to dancing, kick boxing can help you build strength, feeling stronger in your body and get out frustrations in a controlled environment. This is a space to connect with your body. Being a creative person we can tend to be inside our minds all the time. Having a habit that allows you to focus on your body and not your mind can help you disconnect from the pressure of performing your art at all times.
Decluttering
Establish a cleaning habit that helps you maintain your space. A cluttered space equals a cluttered mind and cluttered minds do not strive for their goals. In fact, the more clutter there is the more time you spend thinking about cleaning or tidying which could be spent pursuing your projects. I can tell when I am avoiding something when I start to let the clutter stack up.
Outside Walks
Connect with nature is a nicer way of saying go touch grass but it still means the same thing. Get outside and connect with nature in order to find calm, peace of mind, fresh air and joy. A daily walk can be five minutes down the street or driving to your local park and walking for an hour. If you tend to overthink while you walk set an intention for your walk before you start so you don’t ruminate on all the things you are suppose to do. If you need even more help to quiet your thoughts list to an instrumental playlist, ambient or frequency music to keep your focus.
Try a New Medium
When your creative projects become to much it can be beneficial to try a different medium just for fun. Yes, create for fun. If there is an concept scratching at the back of your mind, let it out for a little a while to allow those creative juices to flow.
Reading
Read to learn something new. This can be a book from your library, an essay on substack or something you already have on your shelf. The goal with reading is to get you out of your head, change your perspective on something and to help you learn something new. This will get you of overthinking or stressing about your current projects and can also help highlight where something is missing.
Community
Join a local community whether virtual or in person to connect with others with a similar interest. This can be a book club, run club, crochet club etc. The goal is to meet new people that understand your interest but also the struggles and stress around it.
Visualization
Open up your vision board or create a career/creative board about your dream life as an artist. For this visualization exercise, I want you to stare at each image, repeat each quote as if they have already happened. See yourself making the sale, painting the biggest piece, get the acceptance letter, etc. Do this first thing in the morning or right before bed to really connect it to the subconscious. Our brains our powerful tools.
Somatic Yoga
The last habit is somatic exercises like yoga or pilates to release tension in the body. This involves tapping, hugging yourself, deep breathing and more. You would be surprised by how good a self hug can feel. Take the time to love yourself, treat yourself with the kindness and respect you would treat a partner and watch your mindset and inner monologue shift.
As someone who procrastinates or thinks about doing something and then never actually shows up to do it all of these habits can change your perspective, help you break through overthinking and take action.
Trust yourself to show up for your creative dreams.