First off, I’m not saying this approach is for you. It’s an approach that I hope is good for me. Trying to be creative and build your skills, to make art if you will, is a fine endeavour and for some, it comes naturally. Of you can sit down and create that’s great; you get enjoyment out of it personally and a product at the end of it that you can choose to share. I’m thrilled for you and your brain.

My brain apparently doesn’t work like that. I need some kind of accountability, some way of telling (even if I’m not showing) myself and the world that I am creating something. The same goes for consistency at the gym, if I don’t record it some way and share it, I forget to go. And I don’t do it for recognition, to me its a cognitive trick, a way of tricking my brain into repeating a pattern that is good for me.

Gym is good. Creating is good. Let’s try the same trick that gets me to go to the gym.

This time around I intend to use public exposure to keep myself active. So, for now, I will be using the hashtag #creativityeveryday on my Twitter to log my progress in writing (ie. word count), photography (progress in photo projects), voice work (scripts created, recordings done and/or shared, etc.) and whatever niche thing I’m doing. Maybe you want to do the same, create a public record of your progress, maybe even share some of your work from time to time. It’s not a competition, but it might spur you to sit down every day and get something done. Whatever your metrics are should only matter to you.

If publicly voicing that you’re doing stuff isn’t for you, then you could try keeping a project journal where you log your progress (offline or online), or maybe just scheduling a 30-minute window every day where you work. Not logging what you’re working on or its progress, but just planning out that you will work.

Consistency is key to improvement, so create a framework that allows you to improve. If posting on Twitter doesn’t work, try a project diary. Diary doesn’t work? Try telling a friend. Got no friends? Try shouting it at the void above. Keep trying, if its something you really want to do but you’re lacking consistency.

Really what we’re looking to do is to ensure that if you want to build your skillset you can. So get to it.