How To Find Your Natural Creative Rhythm

The secret to being consistently creative is finding your natural creative rhythm. It’s so much easier to keep something moving once it has momentum than to have to start it from a standstill each and every time.

But when you create erratically and don’t get into a creative flow, the majority of your energy is spent just trying to get started in whatever project it is you’re working on. Often you expend SO much energy just trying to get up and running, by the time you do you’re exhausted or have completely lost motivation to continue anyway.

So here are the 5 crucial steps you need to take to find YOUR natural creative rhythm:

1. Create regularly. Yes this sounds obvious, but it’s the key to finding your creative rhythm. Because we all use a daily calendar, it makes sense to create this way too. Set a period of time aside each and every day to create for at least 15 minutes. In just a few weeks you’ll have in place the basis for creativity habits that will allow you to create more easily and consistently for the rest of your life. This underlying level of regular creativity forms the foundation for everything else.
2. Find your best time(s) to create. Maybe you create best first thing each morning. Maybe you feel more creative and less distracted late at night. Or maybe you can create at both of these times. You’ll already have a good idea of when your natural creative times are, so go with these first, try them for a week or two and see how effectively it works. It’s worth experimenting with different times of day for a week or two at a time, as you may find a naturally more creative time for you that you’ve not tried before.
3. Choose your surroundings. The environment you create in can have a significant impact on how easy you find it to get into a natural flow with your creativity. Part of this is simply having surroundings where you feel safe, calm, clear-headed and inspired. And partly it’s about having everything you need to create – your tools, materials and equipment – organized and close to hand so you don’t lose time and energy hunting around for stuff each time you go to create. How do your current creative surroundings help or hinder you in these two areas?
4. Create what you enjoy creating. Again this seems obvious, but how much of your creative time do you actually spend on what you ENJOY creating, and how much do you spend on creating what you think you SHOULD be creating? Much of finding your natural creative rhythm is about reducing possible obstacles and going with what feels right, so listen to what you REALLY long to create. Then go and create it.
5. Review and adjust. Once you have each of the above elements in place, you’ll be well on your way to creating in your most natural rhythm. Stay aware though, and don’t be afraid to make adjustments here and there when things aren’t working so well. It’s best to only make one small change at a time, try it for a week or two, then decide whether to continue or try something else. Changing too much at once will mean you don’t know which part you changed had which affect – either positive or negative – on your creativity.

With these steps you have the basis for finding your natural creative rhythm and being able to create as freely and easily as possible for the rest of your creative life.