Don’t get ahead of your process.
Right now, I’m working on a bunch of recording mixing. A lot of tracks.
As such, I have a lot of tasks that have to be done over and over again – once per track. I’ve made a spreadsheet and am checking off each task for each track as I get it done. My challenge is to not stay in a single track and get distracted with other tasks for that track.
The system works better for me if I keep all the tracks moving forward simultaneously, so that I’m thinking about the same thing, executing the same steps, and making similar decisions at the same time. It requires me to have discipline, not get distracted by a different creative challenge.
I think the best creative work is done when we have discipline about the creative process. We listen to our hearts and trust our creative minds, to be sure, but we also keep ourselves on course by following creative plans.
Whatever creative discipline works right for you, follow it – even when you’re creative impulse is distractible.