Putting it off makes you creative

Check out that header! Since my newsletter is a big and regular project of mine, I decided to combine it with some design play. Plus it gives you a little preview of what’s to come.

Two polar extremes happened in January. And no I don’t mean the American political landscape, that's a whole other thing.

It’s the updates of people saying one of two things:

January has been awfully slow with leads/sales/work…

OR

A stress-inducing super crazy month.

Of course my Linkedin feed is filled with “January has been my most profitable month and here’s why ↓” posts.

And me? You’ll be happy to know that I’ve been riding the line of crazed stressed-out worker and catastrophizing about leads and income. You know, a happy medium 🙃.

Last month, I was filled with the same energy that everyone else had. Action. Action. Research. Action.

Then I got a little too in my head, and I decided to do two things:

→Step back and observe

→ Have more conversations

Two big messages came in my head:
1. You're moving wayyy too fast

2. Are you leaving the right room for creative ideas to flow?

The systems debate

We've all tried those rigid systems that promise more profit. And we've been through those completely unstructured periods where ideas float around but without ever touching ground. The sweet spot is somewhere in between.

The thing about being in this haze of stressed-out work is sometimes we forget to check the things we actually wrote down to do.

Sometimes Notion fails. Sometimes physical planners fail.

So what's another option? Maybe little to-do list cards that sit right in front of you with simple notes.

But what's missing from all of this are creative breaks that let you breathe. Where you're not PRESSURED into ideas. You're just expected to turn off the noise to nurture your brain.

Build flexibility into your day. Create a loose system that can grow and shift with your creative energy. Maybe that means planning creative refreshes where you experiment with new visuals, new content, new topics, new formats, or a new environment.

Your unofficial checklist:

• Let ideas come to you and have somewhere to write it without feeling guilty about not acting on it right away

• Keep your creative space and execution space separate

• Tweak and adjust your process until it feels right

• Archive ideas that don't make the cut when you come back to it (more will come or you can save it for another time)

Work with me

I’m working with a few brands right now to refresh their strategy and design, making sure they’re not just consistent but actually exciting to show up for. If your brand feels like it needs more creative breathing room so you open up more opportunities for yourself, hit reply and let’s chat or go to my page and see more.