How to keep your genius flowing without drowning in half-finished tabs and cold coffee
Creative work can be messy. Ideas don’t clock in at 9am. They don’t always play nicely with deadlines, and they definitely don’t care that your inbox is overflowing or that you’ve got five Zoom calls stacked before lunch. If you’re a writer, designer, coder, strategist, or any kind of thinker-for-hire, you’ve probably felt the tug-of-war between productivity and creativity.
You want space to explore. But you also need to finish things.
That tension is real. But it doesn’t mean you have to choose between art and output. With the right habits, you can keep your creativity alive and get the work done.
Let’s break it down.
Stop Waiting for Inspiration
It’s tempting to think that creativity comes from mysterious flashes of genius. That you need to “feel ready” before you start. But most of the time, waiting just becomes a fancy version of procrastination.
Here’s the truth: you don’t need inspiration to begin—you need to begin to find it.
Set a time. Show up. Start messy. Even if the first 15 minutes are awful, your brain will warm up. Most creative breakthroughs happen after you start, not before.
A songwriter I know books a studio slot every Thursday at 10am—whether he has an idea or not. Most weeks, he arrives blank. But once he’s in the chair, ideas start showing up. Not always brilliant ones. But enough to keep going.
Create Before You Consume
If you start your day by checking your phone, doomscrolling, or diving into other people’s work, your creative brain gets hijacked. You go from “what do I want to make?” to “what do I need to react to?”
Flip it.
Make your first hour sacred. No email. No news. No feeds. Just you, your notebook, canvas, keyboard, code editor—whatever your thing is.
This doesn’t have to be a full creative sprint. Ten minutes of sketching. One paragraph of writing. A brainstorm on paper. That’s enough to claim your own voice before the world barges in.
It’s not about shutting the world out. It’s about giving yourself a head start.
Use Creative Sprints
Creativity thrives under pressure—if the pressure is the right size.
Try short, focused bursts. 25 or 50 minutes. Timer on. One task. Then stop.
This works because it bypasses perfectionism. When you know you only have 25 minutes to sketch out ideas or write a draft, your inner critic doesn’t have time to panic. You just go.
Designers use this to knock out mood boards. Writers draft chapters. Developers experiment with code. Sprints give structure without suffocating the work.
And when the timer’s up, reward yourself. Break. Breathe. Then come back for another round.
Define Done
Creative people love to explore. That’s great—until a project never ends.
Set clear finish lines. Not vague goals like “work on the campaign,” but specific ones like “outline the storyboard” or “choose three palette options.”
The tighter the target, the more likely you are to hit it. And hitting it gives you momentum.
Without clear finish lines, projects sprawl. With them, you build a sense of progress—and that’s where productivity lives.
Make a “Maybe Later” List
One big creativity killer is trying to do everything at once. You’re halfway through designing a logo when you suddenly think, “Oh, what if this became a series? What if I added animation? What if—”
Stop.
Create a “Maybe Later” list. When those ideas pop up, jot them down and keep going with the task at hand. That way, you don’t lose the spark, but you don’t derail the flow either.
This one trick has saved me from abandoning ten good projects for one half-baked new idea. Trust that you’ll return to the list later. Right now, just finish what you started.
Respect Admin Time (Even if It’s Boring)
Creative work still comes with boring bits—emails, budgets, meetings, uploading files, chasing invoices. These tasks aren’t glamorous, but they keep the lights on.
Don’t let admin seep into your creative windows. Fence it off. Set a slot—say, 4–5pm every weekday—and batch your admin there.
That way, you protect your best mental space for what actually matters: making things.
Build In Buffer Time
Rushing kills creativity. If you’re always chasing deadlines, there’s no room to explore or experiment.
Plan with buffer. If something will take five hours, book six. If a client wants a pitch by Wednesday, aim to finish it Tuesday.
This buffer gives you breathing room. It lets you tinker without panic. And it stops you from working through every weekend just because a layout took longer than planned.
Track Progress Visually
Creative work can feel invisible. You’re drafting, tweaking, experimenting—but nothing’s “done” yet. That can feel demoralising fast.
Fix it by tracking your progress visually. Use sticky notes. Move cards on Trello. Colour code your drafts. Add stickers to a chart. Watch the board fill up.
It’s silly. It works. It makes the invisible visible—and that gives your brain a hit of progress, which fuels more progress.
Know When to Stop
Here’s a hard one: know when to stop.
Not every idea needs three reworks. Not every piece needs to be perfect. Sometimes, 90% is enough—and done beats dazzling when you’re on a deadline.
Let go of perfectionism. Publish the post. Submit the draft. Hit send. You can tweak forever, or you can ship.
So… What’s Your One Next Step?
Could you block out a daily creative hour? Set up a visual task board? Try a 25-minute sprint?
Pick one thing. Just one. Don’t wait for the perfect system or the right mood. Just do something small and see what happens.
Creative work is valuable—but it only counts when it’s real. That means finished. Shared. Sent. Used.
If you’ve read this far and thought, this is exactly what I need—you’re not alone. That’s why I wrote Stop Putting It Off! How To Work When You’d Rather Watch Cat Videos. It’s funny. It’s practical. And it’s free when you subscribe to our newsletter.
No fluff. Just real tips to help you finish the work that matters. Because your best ideas deserve more than good intentions—they deserve to be done.