7 Practices I Use to Unblock My Success as a Writer, Creator, and Maker

When how you work is far more crucial than how much you work.

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In late 2019, I realized I had lived the same year more than once. After discovering I was far from my professional and personal goals, I took a year and redirected my life and career. I focused on transforming my mindset and restoring my creative confidence.

I've recently encountered more bumps in the road, and while it has less to do with mindset and more to do with practicing unproductive work habits, those bumps in the road have blocked the level of success I want to achieve.

I don't know if you've ever held yourself back from what you want to achieve, but I have.

And instead of waiting for a new year's resolution. I have researched and implemented practices I believe will work to help unblock my success as a creator, writer, and maker.

7 Practices Designed to Unblock and Flow

Yes, I write, create, and make stuff. It's a beautiful career that is becoming a great business. Now, I've entered a phase of my work were holding back and moving at a snail's pace no longer serves me, but neither does hustling 24/7.

For a time, a slower pace worked. I had time to test, experiment, and document successful and not-so-successful ideas, content, and strategies.

But now, it is time to follow through, commit, and scale.

Consequently, I'm setting up some work and life practices to improve how I work. And here are the seven practices I'm using to unblock my success.

1. Work-Play.

Like many, I grew up with a success philosophy that taught me to grind, outwork everyone else, and hustle for success. And though I sit my butt in a chair (or stand occasionally), write, make, and create daily, I also make damn sure I enjoy it. If we are not enjoying our creative process or work, it's easy to become distracted and wander.

Next thing you know, you've been on a 3-hour TikTok binge with little to nothing done.

I keep things fun and lively:

I find fun writing places (quiet spaces around my building, workspaces around the city, and home with jazz playing in the background).
I take frequent breaks.
I have water, healthy beverages, and snacks on hand, such as fruit, veggies, and dips (I've let go of the processed snacks and chips).

Accordingly, an investigation was conducted by the Education Resource Information Center (ERIC) and documented in the American Journal of Play Fall 2016 Edition.

During this investigation, authors Samuel E. West, Eva Hoff, and Ingegerd Carlsson found that superimposing playfulness to work activities can enhance creativity and improve productivity.

2. Productive Creativity

The only way a creative like myself will ever succeed is if we are productively creative. I can easily spend hours working on a project that may have made me feel good for a moment, but it turns into another thing piled in the corner.

It was fun to make at the moment, but was it an indulgent distraction from work that has value beyond me?

While good creative distractions can break up repeating patterns, many distractions are another form of procrastination.

When a creator, writer, or maker is productively creative, we get the same satisfaction from our work that we would get from a self-indulgent distraction.

Additionally, I am not afraid of a hack that works. All too often, creators, writers, and makers can take the long road following the traditional way of getting things done.

If the traditional way is fun for you, then, by all means, continue.

On the other hand, if the long way doesn't affect the quality of the product, then which is more critical — completing the project or maintaining tradition?

Remember, people used to type on a typewriter. Who's going back to that?

3. Gentle Productivity

Gentle Productivity is getting more things done in a sustainable, healthy, life-affirming fashion. Gentle Productivity doesn't uphold procrastination or giving up on your goals. Instead, Gentle Productivity focuses on how we achieve goals.

I can incorporate Gentle Productivity through psychological flexibility. Because I no longer identify myself as a "hard worker," I can explore more gentle and self-compassionate ways to get things done.

Hence, an article published by the Behavior Analysis in Practice Report entitled, The Mindful Action Plan: Using the MAP to Apply Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to Productivity and Self-Compassion supports my stance:

…psychological flexibility allows individuals to engage in values-based actions for self-compassion and sets the occasion for people to actually not be driven to work themselves to exhaustion because they are no longer attached to labels such as “a hard worker” or “massively productive.”

As I practice Gentle Productivity, I

Work with a timer to complete tasks such as writing and take plenty of breaks.
Set healthy, achievable goals while adjusting and improving my goal system.
Balance intrinsic and extrinsic motivation through reward systems.

4. I Shift My State of Being for Inspiration

As a writer and creator, I can't wait for inspiration. If I don't work, I don't eat. I like to eat.

And I must admit, some motivational speakers, peak performance experts, and personal development coaches will throw the expression "go find inspiration" as if it is at a specific location.

Perhaps, you may have a location or place you go to find inspiration, but it's not the location that has inspired you. What you have done is hacked your state of being.

We can put ourselves in a state of inspiration by:

Reading (books, blogs, and here on Medium)
Writing a poem (it doesn't have to be Pulitzer-worthy)
Listening to music
People watching (without staring) at a park
Walks in nature
Listening to a great lecture

Books, music, art, nature, and a great lecture serve as a catalyst to help shift my state of being by stimulating my imagination. Consequently, my state of being alters from unmotivated to motivated.

When I feel that stirring, I write with pen and paper in a stream of consciousness for a few minutes and build from there.

5. Living Well

I know from first-hand experience if you are physically or mentally unwell, you can't concentrate. I can't focus if I'm grieving, sick (with a cold and fever), feeling overwhelmed, worried, or anxious.

Living well allows me to maintain my energy to be productively creative. I can focus on the task and remain in Flow State as I finish projects and assignments.

Furthermore, living well includes financial well-being. If I'm tense about my bills and purchasing the things I need to do my work, I'm not living well. I'm living worried.

Living well includes:

Living healthy. I choose a whole foods plant-based diet.
Exercising and getting out in nature.
Creating avenues for financial freedom.
Resting and sleeping well.

6. I Practice Creative Freedom as I Carve My Path.

Deciding to carve my path in my work and my life isn't taking the easy road. It is a much more difficult road, but I will gladly travel that road. While carving my path, I have more creative freedom.

I can decide:

How I want to work
When I want to work (to some degree, there are deadlines)
Where I want to work
How much I want to work
And what the work will be.

7. Rapid, Effective Decision-Making

Most people aren't taught decision-making in school. Fortunately, I was. In 6th grade, I took a course called the I CAN Course For Achievers. The course was part of my "Gifted and Talented" program curriculum.

The I CAN course was developed by Zig Ziglar, and it became a valuable tool for empowering tweens and teens to focus on goals and achieving them. But the program's most distinctive teachings were building good character and learning to make good decisions.

Learning to make good decisions rapidly improves the quality of our work and our lives.

In the past, I questioned fast decision-making and if slower decision-making was better. But after careful research, I learned that faster decision-making is more effective. For example, a McKinsey Global Survey found

…faster decisions tend to be higher quality, suggesting that speed does not undercut the merit of a given decision. Rather, good decision-making practices tend to yield decisions that are both high quality and fast.

Success As a Writer, Maker, and Creator

Success doesn't look the same for everyone. Success doesn't feel the same for every writer, creator, and maker. Nonetheless, the common fact is you will not experience success if you cannot sustain the work you are producing.

Creating systems and practices that promote sustainable productivity is the key to success. I understand that I had to change how I worked for my workflow to be enjoyable, productive, and sustainable.

Yes, I'm changing how I work to release my success.

Fam, I'm curious. What practices have you implemented to unblock your success? What improvements have you seen in your work life as a result?

Please share your thoughts in the comments.