A toolkit for creativity

This is the number one thing that will get you focussed and productive – I do it several times a day and I promise you, it works.

Once upon a time, my mornings were chaos. I don’t mean a flurry of activity; last-minute packed lunch making, scramble for shoes, dashing out the door with half a slice of toast, that romantic sitcom madness.

I mean full-on sobbing on the walk to nursery (and that was just me), feeling like 9am was mid-morning because I had been awake since 5am, doing my makeup in the car on the way to work then forgetting one side because the lights changed (true story). No one’s idea of quirky cuteness.

Needless to say, I was exhausted. I hit upon several frankly insane productivity ideas, all of which I tried to implement at the same time, for Ultimate Efficiency.

I used to listen to my meditation app while I drove, to try to combine a) dead time in traffic on the Great West Road with b) A feeling of calm and zen that would give me the grace to deal with a busy job.

I tried Trello, Asana, devised an incredibly complicated project management system, listened to motivational speakers while working, went running while listening to said podcasts and spread myself so thinly I felt see-through. I looked up what people with ADHD did to focus because I couldn’t focus at all and what on earth was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I work full time and see my friends and be the Mum of a one-year-old and have my family 250 miles away and pay £1500 for nursery fees every month and feel alright about it all? Why did I feel terrible? What was up with me?

While doing all that, I also tried the Pomodoro Technique.

And, to my blessed relief, it worked.

As I looked at my to-do list and tried to get my scatty brain to focus, it gave me the space to hook my attention on a single subject and achieve something.

When I titled this Substack Creativity in Chaos, I wanted to share some of the activities in my toolkit that help me to find some moments of peace and calm and put down the laundry, stop watching Netflix, and actually make something. It might not be anything very much, but it’s from my own imagination.

The Pomodoro technique is so incredibly simple, and it’s my number one tip.

You take your to-do list and decide on the order of importance.

Then:

·       Set a timer for 25 minutes.

·       Work on task one.

·       When the timer goes off, have a five minute break.

After you have done four segments, take a 15 minute break.

That’s it!

When I first started it, my brain was so all over the place that I had to write down all the things I wanted to distract myself with so I could look them up during the five minute break. But now, I often take the break, and then just get back to the same task for another 25 minutes. Because I focus, ignoring any distractions, it means I can get through more.

Housework is basically made a cinch by it. With a 25 minute timer and some music or a podcast, I’ll have at least made a sizeable dint in it.

Lots of people can be and are incredibly creative amid chaos, but can you really, hand on heart, be fully productive? I know that during those times when I need to cobble together a World Book Day costume, bake some banana bread for a coffee morning, hang out some washing and buy some birthday presents, I have a much better chance of connecting my ideas to the page or my laptop or even my conscious brain if I can get a few moments of peace to actually do that.

Some creatives wish their only responsibility was their art, but even full-time artists, creators and writers – even those who are highly successful – still have other responsibilities. To be productive, sometimes you need to give your thoughts both the time to germinate while you do menial tasks, and also the space – even if just 25 minutes – to take them outside your brain and capture them. That’s true creativity.