Busy Kills Creativity

September 21, 2021

Erin Branham

To my fellow creatives… are you feeling like you can’t quite get ahead? Are you so overwhelmed with all that is on your plate that the thought of trying to do something creative is weighing on you?

You’re not crazy for not feeling creative in seasons of busyness. Busy kills creativity. It restricts thoughts and movement, creates pressure, and puts you squarely in the moment creating tunnel vision so you can only see what’s in front of you. This is how you get trapped in doing the same things over and over again. When you’re busy, those things work and can be done quickly without much thought so you can keep churning through the things.

Creativity requires time. It requires a pause and space so that questions can be asked and thought through. Creativity requires intentionality to keep you fresh and forward and exploring and nimble.

Busy and creativity are two sides of the same coin. If it feels like you can’t see over the busy, here are some ways I’ve found helpful to get me the creative time I need.

Try setting a timer for 30 minutes. You need time to be creative and sometimes the only way you’ll get the time we need is to make the time. Try 30 minutes and work your way up to one hour or the time you know you need to accomplish your goal.
Elminate distractions. Close out your email and social media and put your phone on ‘do not disturb.’ A study recently came out saying we receive 46 push notifications on average per day. That is a lot of interruption. Creativity needs time to breath and dream, and it’s hard to do when the phone and laptop are buzzing with notifications.
Move to a fresh space. Pick your laptop up and move to fresh scenery. Creativity is stimulated by new places. Maybe it’s a different room in the house, moving outdoors, sitting in a coffee shop or the library, but try going somewhere away from where you usually work.

This is a good start to eliminating the busy. You won’t get a full plate of creativity, but you will get space and a pause so you can think and not be a sacrifice at the altar of busy.