Avoid Burnout by Creating with Purpose
It’s 3am, and I’m awake again with another “brilliant” creative idea. I reach over to turn the light on and find my notepad and paper beside my bed. My dog is a bit miffed and rightly so, because this is the third time I’ve turned the light on and made a ruckus in the middle of the night this week.
When I began my foray into entrepreneurship I didn’t immediately see it as a creative venture that would be keeping me up at all hours of the night. I always viewed my creativity as something that I did outside of work and saw creatives as completely different beings than myself. After all, my work involves the more analytical left-hand side of the brain where I deal with the day to day operations of a business and that’s hardly going to get me featured in MoMA anytime soon. So, this feeling of buzzing with constant creative energy was completely new to me.
Then, I realized that entrepreneurship at its very core is nothing but creativity. After all, what is more creative than starting a business and creating a job for yourself out of thin air?! As an entrepreneur you are constantly working your creative muscles by creating new content, solving problems, and making something where there was nothing before.
However, after a few months of constantly feeling this new and exciting creative energy I found myself completely drained. I was unable to turn my brain off at night and kept feeling overwhelmed by everything that I thought I should be doing. Then it dawned on me that I needed to treat my creative ideas the same way as I treat my client’s: I needed to create a system for them. A clear process for handling each new creative idea that would allow me to focus in on the most impactful projects first.
So, before getting caught up in the excitement of your next creative project, try out this foolproof process that helped me out of my creative chaos. It will ensure that you’re always working with the vision of your business in mind and not wasting energy on all of those needling projects that you feel you should be doing.
1. Create a “hub” for all creative ideas.
I’ve definitely been a frequent offender of having some ideas written on post-it notes, others in half written in journals, on the back of junk mail, a thousand different note files on my computer… When a creative idea strikes you need to get it written down ASAP and the idea often gets written out in the most convenient place at the time. The trouble with this is finding all of those convenient places full of your ideas after the fact.
This is why I recommend keeping ONE (yes, just one) main hub to store all of your brilliant creative ideas. For me this hub is Asana. I also love Notion, Google Docs, and the good ol’ standby of a written journal (just make sure that you do not lose that sucker!).
2. Stop and think about how your idea will affect the overall vision of your business.
Before you get into the creating frenzy ALWAYS ask yourself these three questions:
Does your new idea/project/product provide value to your tribe?
How will this affect your current marketing plan?
How will this affect your team? (if applicable)
It’s so easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing and go into a project solely because you saw ________ doing it so you feel you need to as well. Always make sure to go into a new project with clear purpose and not just because you’ve got a bad case of comparisonitis.
3. Talk to your business coach, team member, or friend about your idea.
Entrepreneurship can be awfully lonely if you let it be. Getting caught up in the thought train of what your focus should be is hard. Sharing your ideas with someone else allows you to open yourself to a different perspective and see things that you might not have if you kept it to yourself.
4. Listen to your gut.
Before you start your next creative project imagine your gold medal end result. What does the finish line for this project look like to you? Now imagine how you’ll feel when you get there. If your imagined feeling is anything less than amazing, why are you going ahead with it? Paying attention to your gut is the golden ticket.
5. Set deadlines.
I know I don’t need to tell you this, but life is busy. Once you’ve decided to go ahead with your creative idea always make sure to set out clear action steps with due dates. Otherwise, it will end up getting lost in the day to day.