Planning For Creativity

You can’t be a professional if you’re waiting for the creative mood to strike.

You have to plan for it. Indeed, you have to plan a lot, because opportunities to do creative work are often time-limited. There are days of the week I know I won’t have the opportunity to write music – and that makes it important that I plan for the days when I can.

I think planning effectively for creativity requires:

  1. Recognize and block off the time you want to be creative in advance.
  2. Have everything you absolutely need, but don’t make your need list long. My need list includes my computer with a keyboard OR staff paper and a pencil, a good breakfast, and a cup of hot tea.
  3. Put yourself in the right place and start.

Make your creative time useable by diminishing the physical and mental roadblocks, and making the process of starting as painless as possible.